Vivian O'Neal competes for Miss America crown. Here's how to watch
Miss Mississippi is not just a title for Vivian O'Neal — it's her full-time job.
On Sunday, Jan. 14, O'Neal will compete in Orlando, Florida, for the Miss America crown. Even if she does not return home with the crown, she will have six more months of a full schedule acting as Miss Mississippi.
When she was crowned Miss Mississippi last June, O'Neal quit her full-time job as a recruiter for the University of Southern Mississippi and took on her new role. Mississippi is one of a few states in which the Miss title functions as a full-time job.
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A typical day for O'Neal is anything but mundane.
Traveling for appearances and public speaking is one of the main components of O'Neal's job. O'Neal gets a different car for work travel every 5,000 miles through a sponsor. She said since starting in June, she has already gone through six cars.
One of O'Neal's recent appearances involved dressing up in safety gear and training with canines for the Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi.
"I've been bitten by a police dog with a crown on my head," O'Neal said. "I've been hundreds of feet up in the air at a rocket testing sight."
A main component of O'Neal's job involves her service initiative, called Capable. The initiative includes a curriculum focusing on disability inclusion in grade schools. O'Neal developed two curriculums, one for kindergarten through third grade and one for fourth-through-sixth-grade students.
The curriculum includes the book "Josiah's Big Day," a children's book authored by O'Neal. The main character, Josiah, is inspired by O'Neal's younger brother who uses a wheelchair. The book and the curriculum promote disability inclusivity, and the program is currently used to teach more than 50,000 students nationwide, O'Neal said.
A few years ago, O'Neal attained a 501(c)(3) status to turn Capable into a nonprofit.
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Miss America, an organization more than 100 years old, has a brand mission of "empowering women to lead" and provides higher education scholarships to young women in each state.
O'Neal left from the Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport Saturday morning, Jan. 6, to travel to Orlando. In the days leading up to Sunday's competition, O'Neal has a full schedule of interviews, workshops, appearances, filming, photoshoots and more.
This year's competition will be the first time the fitness component will happen at the national level. The fitness component, in which the contestants dress up in athletic wear, replaces the swimsuit component.
In another first this year, the Miss America's Teen competition will occur the same week as the Miss America pageant. O'Neal traveled Saturday with Miss Mississippi's Teen Nataleigh Nix of Madison.
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O'Neal's pageant career started in grade school, and she competed in five Miss Mississippi pageants before taking the crown. The semester leading up to that final competition, O'Neal balanced the training with graduate level classes and a job as a recruiter. She said winning the 2023 Miss Mississippi title felt surreal.
"I'd really grown up in this organization, and I had watched year after year after year somebody's name be called," O'Neal said. "And so, it was very much almost like an out-of-body experience."
O'Neal plans to use any scholarship money she wins at this Sunday's competition to earn a doctorate. She previously earned a bachelor's degree in public relations and a master's degree in higher education administration, both from USM.
O'Neal does not know exactly what area she will study, but knows it will align with her passions and the skills she has cultivated as Miss Mississippi.
"I love public speaking. I love being around people. I love interpersonal communications and being front-facing," O'Neal said. "Any position that's going to allow me to do that, but also give me a little bit of flexibility to continue growing my nonprofit — that's something that I really see in my professional future."
Some people, O'Neal has found, have an antiquated view of pageants.
"I have found that a lot of people still really don't understand the caliber of the young women that compete," she said. "They're so multifaceted."
As for Sunday's competition, O'Neal said she is not feeling nervous yet but probably will as she goes on stage.
"I'm honored to represent the state and hope that I make everybody proud and bring Mississippi back their fifth Miss America," O'Neal said.
The competition will stream free to the public on WatchMissAmerica.com.
How to watch:
When: Sunday, Jan. 14 at 6 p.m. CT
Where: The competition will stream free to the public on WatchMissAmerica.com
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: how to watch Miss Mississippi Vivian O'Neal in Miss America pageant
