There’s a new Miss SC Teen for 2023. See who won
Sixteen-year-old Margaret Turner was named the new Miss South Carolina Teen Friday night at the Township Auditorium in Columbia.
She was Miss Lakeland’s Teen and is from Greenwood, where she attends Greenwood High. When she was 14 she won Miss Junior High School America on an anti-bullying platform.
She calls it Building Respect and Values for Everyone B.R.A.V.E.
She continued the work as MIss Lakeland because she was a victim of bullying when she was in 7th grade via a type of electronic communication.
She runs an anti-bullying, web-based app called onlykindwords.com.
Turner is also an advocate for blood donation, known as #Banking of Heroes.
She danced to “I Felt the Earth Move” during the talent competition.
She said during her on-stage, drawn-at-random question that of the four points in the Miss South Carolina Tenn crown — representing style, scholarship, success, service — she felt the most important was style. She said she was passionate about it and felt it important to have her own sense of style.
Turner won $10,000 from the Miss America Organization. Her parents are Drs. John and Jennifer Turner, who are dentists.
The Index-Journal in Greenwood reported when she won Miss Junior High that she began competing when she was 7 years old and began dance lessons at 2 years old.
First runner up was the 17-year-old Miss Columbia’s Teen, Mary Elle Marchant.
Others in the top five represented Clemson, Simpsonville and Hilton Head. There were 34 contestants.
The 2023 Miss South Carolina competition will be held Saturday night with 47 contestants. This is the 86th year the Miss South Carolina Scholarship Organization has hosted the event.
Saturday night ends the reign of Miss South Carolina 2022 Jill Dudley, who used her year to advocate for rape survivors.
A Socastee native and rape survivor, Dudley’s focus has been on examining the myths of rape culture, share stories of survival and encourage bystanders to get in the fight. Her platform is called Shatter the Cycle.
