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She was a little kid trying to make herself smaller still. “I never thought that a trans person who was bullied, who had a background in physical and sexual abuse, who wanted to die at one point, would someday represent our state,” she says. “I was tired of trying to live up to an expectation that didn’t necessarily fit me and didn’t serve me - and if anything, almost killed me.” “It really affected my struggle with my mental health, being constantly shamed, being put down, being attacked, being bullied to the point where I was just tired,” she continues. “For a long time I had to hide that and fight away that feeling of who I am. “I grew up very uncomfortable I grew up being told, ‘No, you shouldn’t be doing this,’ when it felt natural for me,” Enriquez says.
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Born in the Philippines before relocating to California when she was 10, Enriquez realized she was transgender at a young age - and was punished for it. Whether or not Kataluna Enriquez is crowned the next Miss USA on Monday night, her story is a remarkable one. “The Miss USA pageant is like ‘America’s Next Top Model’ mixed with the UFC mixed with, like, a presidential debate, all in one,” explains Crystle Stewart, national director of the Miss USA and Miss Teen USA pageants who was also crowned Miss USA in 2008. Training for the Miss USA pageant is a full-time gig, a physical and mental endurance test with hours and hours spent preparing for the event in a daily routine akin to a sort of beauty-minded boot camp. Someone’s power walk could win them the whole thing.” Shoulders, posture, taking time to stand, how you stand - it’s everything.
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Americas next top model recap how to#
“So you have to train them how to move both arms, to have a natural gait. “When we walk, you don’t realize, with most girls, only one arm will move,” Castillo says. Think of it in acting terms: a leading lady has to internalize her dialog, inhabit it, so when she speaks, it doesn’t sound like she’s reciting lines from a script. “You would think walking is an easy thing.”įor the pageant, Enriquez must conduct her movements with the attention to detail of an NFL wideout running a slant route, where every step counts and timing is imperative.Īnd, it all needs to feel natural - even though it’s the opposite: studied, well-considered, highly-calibrated. I need more hair flip,” instructs Marissa Castillo, director of the Miss Silver State pageant and former Miss Nevada 2016, who’s coaching Enriquez as she prepares for Miss USA. Until then, though, it’s one foot in front of the other for Kataluna Enriquez at the west side Jordance Studios, whose mirrored walls simultaneously reflect both a woman in gold heels and white shorts pivoting her hips in semi-circles precise enough to have been drawn by a compass and a sense of imminent change. on a Thursday in early November, and Miss Nevada is learning how to walk.įour weeks from now, she’ll be in Tulsa, Oklahoma, making history as the first openly transgender contestant in the 69 years of the Miss USA pageant, which last made waves way back in 1987 when Bob Barker quit as host in protest over the use of fur coats as prizes. (Chase Stevens/Las Vegas Review-Journal) 11:30 a.m. Miss Nevada USA Kataluna Enriquez performs during her victory party at The Garden in the Arts District of downtown Las Vegas on Friday, July 23, 2021.