Miss Auburn University Karson Fair’s pageant career began when she least expected it. When she was six years old in her hometown of Benson, North Carolina, she competed in a local festival called Home of the Mule that held a pageant for little girls.
“I was able to kiss all the award-winning mules that year and ride in all the rodeos,” Fair said. “Later on I competed in my high school pageant out of a dare, and that’s what started all of this — a dare.”
Fair said her extensive pageant career officially began when she got involved in the Miss Outstanding Teen Organization after her high school pageant.
Prior to her first competition with the program, Fair said she never paid close attention to Miss America nor had she watched a winner be crowned.
“I was at the very end of the spectrum,” Fair said. “I ended up winning Miss North Carolina’s Outstanding Teen that year and went on to Miss America’s Outstanding Teen. [When I came to Auburn] I competed for Miss Auburn/Opelika Area and won that, competed at Miss Alabama last year and was the third runner-up to Jessica Proctor, who is our current Miss Alabama.”
She then competed in the Miss Auburn University pageant and won.
Fair said her motivations for competing in pageants are more important than her grand total of nine crowns she has earned throughout the years.
Her personal platform she strives to spread throughout her pageant career and Auburn’s campus is called “Know Your Worth.”
“It’s about self-esteem and self-love,” Fair said. “It reminds people where their value does and doesn’t come from and how uniquely capable each of us
In addition to all of Fair’s involvement with pageants, she is also an involved student.
She studies psychology and human development and family
This upcoming year, Fair is getting a second chance to go back and compete for the title of Miss Alabama.
Fair said she is excited to go back and compete for the crown and is determined to use her persistence to keep working toward her goal. She said it is not about the title but about the people that she could potentially help.
“[Competing] is kind of cool, but at the same time, it’s funny to hear people say, ‘Oh, you’re the pageant girl’ because when I was younger I danced, but I also loved to play in the woods, hunt and fish,” Fair said. “It takes me back, and then I realize I guess I am.”
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