Miss Washington Teen USA is a competition that selects a representative to participate in the Miss Teen USA pageant.

Washington is one of the most successful states in the Miss Teen USA pageant. This year three teens who will be competing in the USA pageant live in Maple Valley — Tracy Anderson, Emily Oaks and Kassidy Lynne.

The girls have all recently started participating in pageantry within the last year or two. They all fell in love with pageants and want to continue to do them in the future.

On top of competing in pageants, each of the girls have their own special talents.

Tracy Anderson

Anderson grew up in Maple Valley and loves it.

One of the big reasons she started to participate in pageants was to promote mental illness. According to Anderson, she has struggled with anxiety and depression and wanted to make it clear to everyone it is something one can overcome.

“It’s something that has been really near to my heart,” Anderson said.

She said the stigma of mental illness makes it hard for people to stand up and do what they want to do. She is trying to change the stigma by promoting this platform in her pageant journey.

She works alongside the National Alliance on Mental Illness. This is the largest mental health organization is the nation, which started in 1979.

When Anderson graduates from high school she wants to go to Renton Technical College to get her degree in dental assistance and then get her bachelor’s degree in musical arts at a four-year university. Emily Oaks

When Oaks was little she said she would pretend she was in pageants and that was part of what sparked her interest in pageantry last year.

She was able to participate in the Macy’s fashion show this past year.

“I was nervous at first, but after my first time I was like ‘I can do this now,’” Oaks said.

One of Oak’s unique talents is archery. She has been doing it about four years and loves it.

“It was fun,” Oaks said. “At first I wasn’t that good, but I got better at it.”

Right now, Oaks is in Running Start, a program that allows high-school students to get a head start in their college careers.

At the moment she is not sure what four-year university she would like to attend once she graduates, but she said she might want to major in human resources.

Kassidy Lynne

One of the big reasons Lynne started in pageants was because she wants to promote anti-bullying. She has been doing pageants for about two years.

She said she has been bullied for the past five years and this inspired her to start campaigning against bullying.

The reason she has been bullied is because she is a country music recording artist, and according to Lynne they bullied her because they didn’t believe she could really be a music artist.

“People are mean to you when they know you got something going for yourself,” Lynne said.

Her start in recording music was an interesting one to say the least, according to Lynne.

“When I was like 9 I really loved Hannah Montana,” she said. “I told my mom, ‘Mom, I want to be the next Hannah Montana.’”

When she was 11 years old, she went to Orlando where she auditioned in front of agents to see if anyone liked her. It turned out one of the agencies really like her and about six months later she signed Lynne for a recording contract.

“There’s no words for how amazing it is,” Lynne said.

When Lynne graduates from high school she said she would like to go to Nashville for college and major in music or sports medicine.