From North Texas to the Miss America stage, the newly crowned Miss Texas is making history.
“My name is Averie Bishop. I am the 85th anniversary Miss Texas and the first Asian American woman to represent our state,” she said.
Bishop is also a first-generation SMU graduate and SMU law school graduate.
She’s the daughter of a Filipino-immigrant mother and fourth-generation Texan father.
“It’s such an emotional feeling because when I was a kid, I never dreamed of becoming Miss Texas because I didn’t think that anyone looked like me as Miss Texas,” she said.
Bishop says her mother introduced her to a special pageant circuit as a teen.
“My mom signed me up for an Asian-American cultural pageant within our community, so I got to wear Filipino attire and reconnect with her culture,” she said.
Competing in the Miss Texas pageant over the weekend was also a race against time. WATCH