Miss Michigan, a W MI native, wins talent preliminary at Miss America
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Miss Michigan won the talent preliminarily competition at Miss America Thursday.
Speed painter Maya Schuhknecht of Buchanan won, along with Miss North Carolina and Miss Maine. According to the competition, she will receive a $3,000 scholarship for the win.
“We could not be more proud and happy for her achievements!” the Miss Michigan Facebook page said in a Thursday post, along with a photo of her painting of Michael Jackson.
Schuhknecht first found a passion for art growing up and later turned to the creative outlet during hardships in her life.
Meet the West Michigan artist vying for Miss America title
“I use the arts as a creative and emotional outlet,” she previously told News 8. “I’ve been through a lot of adversity in my life. It started when my mom had breast cancer when I was like 13. And when you’re 13, you don’t know how to process those emotions, or at least I didn’t.”
She advocates for the arts with Arts for All, her community service initiative.
The recent Michigan State University grad told Hometown Productions ahead of the competition that representing a nontraditional talent “is really close to my heart.”
More than $250,000 in scholarships will be awarded during the Miss America and Miss America’s Teen competitions. Miss Michigan Teen Kyle D’Andrea of St. Clair Shores is competing for the Miss America Teen title.
The Miss America Finals will stream free on Sunday at watchmissmaerica.com.
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