If Virginia is the state that can do it all, from picturesque mountains to bright cities to sandy beaches, then it’s only fitting that Miss Virginia does it all, too, — and Victoria Chuah fits the bill. The 2022 Miss Virginia winner from Ashburn, who formerly held the title of Miss Arlington, is a contestant-of-all-trades, with a diverse range of passions and talents that set her apart from the crowd and propelled her to success in pageantry.
Chuah graduated summa cum laude from University of Pittsburgh in May with her master’s in computer science, completing both her undergraduate and graduate degrees in just four years. While at Pittsburgh, Chuah was involved in ballet, a lifelong passion of hers, and played the lead role of Clara in the school’s performance of The Nutcracker. The NoVA native was also able to juggle her roles as class president, president of the School of Computing and Information Graduate Student Organization, president of the improv club, and host of a student-run late-night talk show. Outside of her schoolwork and extracurriculars, Chuah also advocates for support systems for adults with autism, and in her spare time, she likes to sew, making her own alterations to ballet costumes and designing clothes for fun.
And if that isn’t enough, Chuah was previously an intern at Morgan Stanley. She plans to start at the company as a software engineer once she’s finished with pageantry, but she’s not quite done yet. As her tenure as Miss Virginia begins, Chuah will be preparing for the Miss America pageant in December. (Miss Virginia USA, Kailee Horvath, also hails from Ashburn. She will compete for Miss USA this fall.)
What are your new responsibilities as Miss Virginia?
One of the biggest things for Miss Virginia is the Miss Virginia School Tour. Miss Virginia partners with the Virginia ABC and she goes on a school tour talking to K-8 students about making healthy choices and substance abuse. And as well, I’m able to talk about my personal platform, which is awareness for autism.
How did you get started in competing in pageants?
I never grew up doing pageants. It was never something that was really big in my family or in my area. But I saw an ad for a local pageant … and that turned out to be a Miss Virginia preliminary. So I ended up entering that sort of on a whim. And at that time, I was a junior in high school, so that was just the teen [pageant]. But through doing it that one teen year, I just saw so much growth in myself.
How have you managed to balance all your different passions?
All the things I was doing, I did because I loved [them]. It wasn’t any sort of résumé padding or anything like that. I enjoyed all the different activities I had … and I wanted to make time for them. And if I didn’t [make time], then I wouldn’t be able to do them. And that just was unfathomable to me. There were definitely times when it was a little more stressful than others, but I did it somehow.
How will you be preparing for the Miss America pageant this December?
One thing that I do want to do for Miss America is accomplish things as Miss Virginia that I can talk about … that I can say, “Hey, through the six months that I’ve had this platform, I’ve been able to accomplish X, Y and Z.” I really, really want to push women in STEM. I was the only girl at my master’s graduation, so I’ve seen the lack of women in STEM, particularly in tech. And I really want to push that. I think that it starts with women seeing a role model and seeing, “Oh, there’s someone like me that is doing this.” I know that was the case for me and I just want to be able to do that for someone else.
What advice would you give to young girls competing in their first pageant?
Just be yourself. I have all these different things that I love and I have no reason to hide them. There’s no reason for me to not want to advertise that I’m so involved in computer science, or that I do ballet, or that I sew. You shouldn’t have to be someone you’re not.
And again, every pageant is a learning experience. You don’t win every time. I didn’t win every time. This is the first time that I’ve won this Miss Virginia and it’s my third year competing. But there’s so much that you can learn even when you don’t win. There’s really so many skills that you’re gaining from this pageant, regardless of the outcome. Just enjoy it and take everything for what it is.
Feature image by Kimberly Toney Needles and Rick Myers.
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