Clarke County is blessed with a myriad of beautiful girls. While all of the beautiful girls don’t always choose to compete in pageants, one young girl who just recently turned six, Aaryannah Clark, proudly competes and proclaims that she is from Quitman any time she is given the opportunity.
Aaryannah was introduced to the pageant world while spending quality time with her great grandmother when she was younger.
“When she was little, she used to always watch Miss USA with my grandma, who died two years ago. My grandma told her she would be Miss USA one day,” remembered Aaryannah’s mom, Anna Gaines. “She did her first little pageant at the Meridian fair. My grandma told me I had to keep her baby in those pageants. We stopped for a while because it was real depressing without my grandma being here.”
While they took a little break from the pageants, they recently started back when Aaryannah expressed an interest in participating again. Since they started back, she has gained multiple titles and awards, including her biggest title: Little Miss Mississippi Tourism.
“My baby told me she wanted to be a pageant girl and said yes when I asked if she was sure. We started back in April of last year,” stated Anna. “Her biggest title she’s won is Little Miss Mississippi Tourism. She’s won a lot of different titles: Personality Supremes, a lot of Most Beautiful, Grand Supremes, and Ultimate Grands. We actually go to Texas next month because she’s getting the Little Miss Baton Rouge title. She has over 20 crowns, about five five-foot trophies, medals, and sashes.”
She hasn’t forgotten her great grandmother who got it all started, though. In fact, her great grandmother is still her inspiration.
“That’s her biggest motivation when we get to the pageants. She has a little hoodie and necklace that she wears. She wears it to school and everything because it helps keep her calm, focused, and motivated,” expressed Anna. “She tells me all the time how she misses grandma. I tell her that grandma is proud of her and to keep pushing and doing. I’m just going to keep encouraging my baby to keep pushing and let her know she’s doing a good job.”
Aaryannah has a beautiful outgoing personality, and it is perfect for the shows she participates in and helps her make new friends along the way. She loves to be able to do the shows and especially likes being able to model and spend time with her new friends.
“I like to play with my friends,” proclaimed Aaryannah. “My favorite pageant was the Little Miss Mississippi one. I like to show my dresses.”
While she does have fun in the pageants, Aaryannah also works hard and takes the shows seriously. She makes sure to practice so she can do her best at all times.
“We have a pageant coach that she goes to. She helps her with her walk and interviews and her open fashion walk. We usually see her twice a week. We met her when we started with the Universal Miss pageants in Meridian,” explained Anna. “She’ll practice while we’re just at home. She’ll put her heels on and just walk around.”
Since starting back up last April, Aaryannah has stayed busy with her shows and is part of multiple pageant systems.
“We went from Universal Miss to America’s Best. Then, we went from America’s Best to Gingerbread, which is out in Texas. We like toggling between all of them because we have two other pageant systems that we’re doing now on top of the ones we’ve already been doing,” declared Anna. “We’ve been anywhere from Mississippi to Louisiana, and we just expanded to Tennessee. They wanted us to go to Missouri last year in December, but we couldn’t do it with her having all the Mississippi pageants back to back.”
Now that she has turned six, she has to move up to the next age group where some new things will be added. She is confident and determined, though. Even in a large crowd having to do something new, Aaryannah lets her smile and personality shine brightly as she shows no fear on stage.
“I was shocked when she did her first show with Universal Miss last year. I was expecting her to go on stage and get stage fright. She went up there saying, ‘I got this,’” proclaimed Anna. “She’s now getting to the age where she’ll have all the interviews. When she went to state last year, she had interviews, but it wasn’t as big as when she turns six. Now she’s getting to the point she will be doing talent and stuff like that. I thought it was so unique when she did her first interview with Universal Miss because they actually have them dress up as if they are going to an interview.”
Along with her pageants, Aaryannah does different volunteer opportunities in the community.
“Around the holidays, we took cupcakes to the pharmacy and sheriff’s department. We took canned food to Love’s Kitchen in Meridian,” stated Anna. “She volunteered in Laurel, and they gave out food and clothes to homeless people. We were trying to put together baskets to take to the nursing home for the elderly.”
Her mom loves to see her participate in the pageants and offers her encouragement every step of the way. Not only does Aaryannah just love doing them, but the pageants give her opportunities she wouldn’t have otherwise, and they can help her in the future with some of the prizes for winning.
“She says she wants to continue doing this. I’m hoping she does because the majority of the big pageants have scholarships. The tourism one she won is actually one of the ones with scholarships,” said Anna. “It makes me happy to see her go up there and do it. I don’t know who’s more excited about it, me or her. When we went to Texas, we were the only ones from our state, and it’s just exciting. We get to travel and see places that some don’t get to see.”
They are currently selling ads for the Texas pageant that she will attend in February, and they will later sell ads for Universal Miss in April.
