Cheslie Kryst can now add Miss USA 2019 to her list of epic accomplishments.
The 27-year-old attorney from Charlotte, North Carolina, who represents prison inmates pro bono, had some empowering words as she took home the Miss USA title Thursday during the final competition held in Reno, Nevada.
Here are some of her best moments.
Kryst earned a law degree and an MBA at Wake Forest University before becoming a civil litigation attorney, according to the Associated Press. In a videotaped message played during last night's two-hour event, she shared the story of a judge at a legal competition who told her to wear a skirt instead of pants because judges prefer skirts.
Her response to that memory...
"Glass ceilings can be broken wearing either a skirt or pants."
On judges who provided very little feedback to her and her partner during the legal competition in Louisiana...
"Don’t tell females to wear different clothes while you give the men substantive feedback on their legal arguments."
On being inspired by her mother, who was crowned Mrs. North Carolina in 2002.
"I was that little weird kid who had a unibrow and didn’t have any friends. My hair was always pulled back. I thought, 'I want to be just like her.'"
On pageants in general...
"I can’t say pageants make you beautiful. I think they make your more confident in the person that you are," she said.
On how pageants never changed the person she was...
"I’m still that same weird kid. I still like reading books. And at the end of the day, I like to sit by myself in my house and just watch movies. But I think pageants taught me all that, and my mom was really the one who introduced me to that and drew me to pageantry."
On her generation, which she summarized as "innovative"...
"I’m standing here in Nevada, in the state that has the first female majority legislature in the entire country," Kryst said. "Mine is the first generation to have that forward-looking mindset that has inclusivity, diversity, strength and empowered women. I’m looking forward to continued progress in my generation."