Crookston’s Muira MacRae is competing this week in the Miss Minnesota Competition at the Eden Prairie Performing Arts Center. The contestants began their Miss Minnesota week activities Saturday.
The preliminary round started Wednesday with interviews and the performance of talents and will continue through Saturday night’s finals said, MacRae. “I’ll do my evening gown on Thursday and finals are on Saturday,” said MacRae. “On Saturday you find out if you made it into finals and if you did you do it all over again. Then you find out who Miss Minnesota is.”
According to MacRae, each of the contestants has something they are very passionate about they want to share. “24 girls are competing for the title of Miss Minnesota,” said MacRae. “It’s very strong women who all have something that they are very passionate about, and they want to share that with other people and the world.”
MacRae’s platform and social impact initiative is body confidence in young women. “There is a lot of pressure in today’s society put upon young women to look and feel a certain way about their bodies,” said MacRae. “That creates a negative stigma for girls, and they feel pressured to be something that they are not. That creates a lot of mental and physical health problems as a result. So I want to go out there and be a representative of a different body type to show young girls they can be beautiful, confident, and strong about their bodies and themselves.”
The candidates were asked to choose a princess who will accompany them to the competition, and MacRae chose Lacey Follette who will be going into fourth grade at Cathedral School. Follette said she would also get to participate in several programs as the Northern Lights’ Princess. “I get to take a princess etiquette class,” said Follette. “I get to take a dance class. And Muira and I get to have lunch together with all the other contestants and their princesses.”
The finals for Miss Minnesota will begin Saturday at 6:00 p.m. at the Eden Prairie Performing Arts Center.
