Aimee Coronado had never competed in pageants before.

Yet, now the Federal Way woman wears the jeweled crown and embroidered sash with pride as the Miss Latina Hawaii 2020 titleholder.

“This was actually my first-ever pageant,” 19-year-old Coronado said. “I had never considered doing pageants before.”

Aimee (pronounced I-May) Coronado, a student at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, was crowned Miss Latina Hawaii 2020 in December after stumbling upon a poster advertising the scholarship program just a few months prior.

The poster’s two key words — Latina and scholarship — piqued her interest, Coronado told the Mirror.

Once she entered the pageant, which is a local preliminary competition for the Miss Hawaii and Miss America pageants, Coronado and five other women began three-hour once-a-week training sessions to prepare.

Most of society has a common misconception that pageants are events for women to “sit there and look pretty,” Coronado said. “Now, it really focuses a lot more on what’s in your mind and what’s in your heart, rather than what’s on the exterior.”

In June 2018, the Miss America Organization announced the removal of the swimsuit portion of the competition and declared “the 51 women representing their home states and the District of Columbia will no longer be judged on outward physical appearance.”

According to a press release: “We are no longer a pageant. Miss America will represent a new generation of female leaders focused on scholarship, social impact, talent, and empowerment,” stated Gretchen Carlson, chair of the Board of Trustees for the Miss America Organization, adding, “We’re experiencing a cultural revolution in our country with women finding the courage to stand up and have their voices heard on many issues. Miss America is proud to evolve as an organization and join this empowerment movement.”

Coronado and her fellow competitors learned how to walk, answer questions, and how to present themselves on stage to prepare for the four competition categories: talent, which accounts for 40% of an individual’s overall score; a private interview with a panel of judges; an on-stage question; and an evening gown portion with presentation of the individual’s social impact statement.

“You have to know about pretty much everything,” Coronado said of the private and on-stage questioning, including local, state and national politics, the history of the Miss America contest, previous and current titleholders, and more. “… I definitely had to study.”

Coronado was born and raised in Federal Way, attending Thomas Jefferson High School and later Highline College through Running Start. She focused her social impact platform on advocacy for mental illness awareness — “be kind to your mind.”

“I have personally struggled with mental illness since middle school, and it took me a long time to even be able to admit that I had a mental illness,” Coronado said. “Fortunately I was able to get to the point, now I’m being treated, and I want others to hear my story and hopefully be inspired to share theirs …”

For many years, Coronado said, she felt alone and as if no one understood what was going on inside her head. Coronado said she often felt empty, emotionless, tired, and had a detrimental lack of motivation.

When she finally reached her breaking point and went to the doctor, she was diagnosed with anxiety and depression.

“Honestly, you could even call it a silent killer,” she said of the severity of mental illness. “It’s really important for me to push the fact that you don’t always see mental illness on the outside … It’s as serious as any physical illness that you have.”

While her platform does not push for medication, Coronado does support those impacted by mental illness to explore a variety of treatments and therapy options.

Such as music therapy, which is how Coronado found a way to cope.

She played the violin for seven years growing up, then transitioned to concert and chamber choir for musical involvement at Thomas Jefferson High School. During her junior year, she began taking private voice lessons at the Federal Way School of Music.

“I wanted to have a more belting, powerful, emotional, hard-hitting sound that I had never explored in choir,” she said. “I wanted to dig into the soul aspect of singing.”

For the talent portion of Miss Latina Hawaii, Coronado sang “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” by Celine Dion.

As Miss Latina Hawaii 2020, Coronado said she feels empowered by her talents and her culture more than ever before.

“It’s really important to me to have this Latino background and have that be the focus of my title,” Coronado said.

About 20 and 30 years ago, her mother and father, respectively, emigrated from Mexico to the United States, leaving their careers — her mother, Perla, a radiologist and her father, Federico, a pilot — in pursuit of the “American Dream.”

Coronado said it’s important for her to share her background because “I feel like it gives credit to my parents because I wouldn’t be able to be doing any of this if they hadn’t laid the foundation for me … It’s a pride point for me.”

Another benefit was sharing the culture of Mexico, especially in Hawai’i where people are incredibly culturally aware. There isn’t a big Latino culture in Hawaii so she serves as a public Latino role model, especially for the little Latina girls, she said.

“I hope by winning Miss Hawaii, which is obviously the goal for everybody who is competing, I can bring more attention to the [Latino] community and the underrepresentation that we get in Hawaii.”

By combining her platform and her culture, now Coronado hopes to open up the avenue for conversations that may not be had in traditional Latino culture about mental illness, often written off as bad behavior or as just a phase.

As the Miss Latina Hawaii 2020 competition came to an end, individual section prizes were announced, such as talent award, ethnic dress award, social impact statement award, miss congeniality, directors choice, miss photogenic and miss popularity.

All the category awards were divided among three of the women, two of whom won runner-up and second place.

Then, the judges announced the Miss Latina Hawaii title — and called her name.

“I could not believe it because I had kind of accepted defeat at that point,” Coronado said. “I was shocked … It felt like I was finally being recognized for all the hard work I’ve been putting in — not just to the pageant but into myself as a person.”

To donate

Coronado is preparing for the Miss Hawaii 2020 competition to be held in May. The contestants fundraise for the Children’s Miracle Network, the money staying local to benefit the Kapi’olani Children’s Center.

The Miss Hawaii Organization Legacy Trees provide another avenue for donations. For every tree you sponsor through the Miss Hawaii Organization, a portion of the proceeds is donated to the University of Hawaii Foundation/Miss Hi Scholarship Fund.

She is accepting donations through her Miss America 2.0 page and also her GoFundMe page.