'There are a lot of great opportunities': Wasilla resident named Miss Alaska Junior Elementary 2023

Not many girls or women have the guts or desire to compete in any sort of pageant, let alone nab a big win their first time competing, but a sassy young lady from Wasilla has done just that.

Wasilla resident Aurora Barnes recently competed in and won the Miss Alaska Junior Elementary 2023 Pageant.

“I’m a queen now,” Barnes proudly declares with a big smile when she talks about her recent win.

Barnes comes from a pageant background as her cousin, Dnayla Alston has participated in several pageants of her own and is currently a 2022 Rondy Royalty Princess.

“I was joking around with her dad and said, ‘why not put her in this pageant?’ and we went headfirst into this,” says Alston.

Barnes competed in her first pageant and won the local title of Miss Wasilla Elementary, propelling her to Miss Alaska Junior Elementary.

“Now I’m going for Miss America Elementary First Grade,” she says.

Is she nervous about being on such a big stage? “I’m not.”

There were concerns about entering Barnes at such a young age, but concerns were eased with things such as not having to be made up all the time, and not having to perform a talent like others may require.

“She wore makeup only for the formal portion of the pageant. She didn’t wear any for the interview. And even then, we kept to a minimum, only having it because of the really harsh lights.”

The pageant was also free of drama and behaviors that could be seen as insulting or hurtful to such young participants.

The Miss Alaska Junior Elementary competition is part of the larger Miss Alaska Junior High, High School, and Collegiate America Pageant competitions that exists for the purpose of providing personal and professional opportunities for junior high, high school, and collegiate women through friendly competition of interview skills, poise, confidence, style, service, and character.

“There are hundreds of pageants (in the lower 48), but Alaska has 6, so there’s very little to pick from, as far pageants.”

This is not a “winner take all” pageant; instead, there are opportunities to win awards and prizes without taking home the title, allowing ladies a chance to express themselves, learn life skills and help pay for continued education.

“For the elementary contestants, every girl got a crowning moment to not discourage them. In her (Barnes’s) division there were 4 girls, and each of them was awarded a Princess crown. There were other awards the girls were awarded, such as “Top Interview.”

Barnes won the “People’s Choice” Award, something Alston says meant more to the little girl than the sash or crown.

“When she won and they put the crown on her head and the sash on her, she could’ve cared less. She wanted this (People’s Choice Award). “

The Miss Alaska Jr High, High School and Collegiate scholarship pageant was founded in 2009 by Rita Corwin and was designed to include girls and women from all walks of life, adding the Junior High division in 2013. One thing that separates this competition from typical beauty pageants is that there is no swimsuit or talent competitions required.

There was also a “fun fashion” event and an opening number where the contestants introduced themselves, and an evening gown portion.

Alston believes one of the things judges saw in Barnes was her authenticity during the interview portion of the competition.

“They asked her questions about school and her friends,” she says, “and we didn’t rehearse any of that. She’s very spunky, very expressive. I honestly think she did so well because I didn’t coach her, other than how to walk in a long gown, because that’s hard. She went in there being completely authentic. We didn’t do interview prep, just told her to smile, even if she didn’t get called for anything.”

When asked how she felt about winning, Barnes is all smiles and eagerly shows off her sashes, and says, “When I won my daddy was standing up and crying.”

Next up for Barnes? She and her family will travel to Little Rock, Arkansas next summer to participate in Miss America Elementary First Grade.

“Then we’re going to Disneyland!”

As for further pageant competitions, Barnes says she doesn’t want to do any more. But the mind of little girls can always change.

“As long as she wants to, we can put her in this in for every grade she goes to, as long as she’s still in the game,” Alston says, which does excite Barnes before looking back to videos on Alston's phone.

Alston does plan to compete in the same competition on the Collegiate level next year after her time as Rondy Royalty expires.

“There aren’t a lot of people in the Valley that will do elementary pageants like this, so it’s really cool that we can have our own pageant and hopefully this will encourage others to give this a try, and lead to people getting involved,” says Alston. “Pageantry can be great. It’s definitely not like it used to be and there’s a lot of great opportunities that can come with it.”