In the modern era like ours, beauty pageants often get bad rap as people make assumptions that pageantry is a way to demean, derogate and standardize the beauty of women. On the contrary, it is quite visible that pageants are more relevant nowadays and necessary than ever because they inspire young women to become the best versions of themselves.

For many years now, beauty pageants have produced queens who have been creating strong impacts and changing the world for the better. One such queen, joining the league is Miss Hawaii USA 2020 Samantha Neyland, founder of the community ‘Hawaii for Juneteenth’, who has successfully led the efforts to establish Juneteenth in Hawaii.

Hawaii on Wednesday became the 49th state to officially recognize Juneteenth when the governor signed legislation designating June 19 as a day commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. The bill was signed just hours before the House passed its own legislation designating the day a federal holiday. The U.S. Senate already passed the bill, which President Joe Biden is expected to sign.

Juneteenth commemorates when the last enslaved African Americans learned they were free. The law came into being after Samantha Neyland launched her campaign to recognize the day. She recalls preparing to speak live on social media about Juneteenth during the coronavirus pandemic and learning that Hawaii was one of few states that didn’t observe the day.

Talking about how she decided to lead the way she said, “I kind of got embarrassed for my state. I just thought, OK, this is not who we are. We can’t be known for this. We’re so much better than that. It kind of came to me and of me, and I decided, yeah, this is going to be my project.”

Neyland hopes official recognition will spur Hawaii schools to teach students about Juneteenth history and about how the Hawaiian Kingdom outlawed slavery in 1852. Neyland said she didn’t learn about either in school. In just one year, the Hawaii for Juneteenth coalition grew to a collection of elected officials, businesses, nonprofits and advocacy groups. Together, they helped pass a resolution recognizing Juneteenth as a Day of Remembrance in Maul County where Samantha advocated, lobbied and used her social media influence to rally support and make the legislative process fun and accessible to my followers.

Neyland credits her experience in pageantry for the confidence to step into a leadership role and lead her state in an effort to make Juneteenth a state holiday in Hawaii. She boiled all her lessons from pageantry down to one statement, “Women, when empowered and courageous, are capable of leading a movement and changing the world. It has been my pleasure to lead my state through this history-making change. My next task – helping other young women see that they too can break the rules and change the world.”