2021 started on a good note for all the Bachelor fans as the 25th Season premiered on the first Monday of the year. The season has returned with 32 women competing for this season’s bachelor, 28-year-old Matt James.

Due to Covid-19, the entire season was filmed at the Nemacolin, a resort in Pennsylvania, and all contestants had to quarantine before shooting.

One of the women competing for love this year is Miss Maryland USA 2019 Mariela Pepin, the 24-year-old beauty queen from Odenton. Although she didn’t win the Miss USA 2019 title, she did finish in the top 10 that year. She was also Miss Maryland Teen USA in 2014.

Pepin also took to her official social media as she announced her participation at The Bachelor. She wrote, “The first of many magical moments. Watch it unfold during the premier of #TheBachelor tonight at 8|7c on abc!”

Pepin graduated in 2018 and majored in communications. Pepin’s family lived in multiple places due to her dad’s job in the Army, ultimately settling down in Maryland.