Competing in an International Pageant to end childhood starvation: Young Miss FACS Worldwide
Published 1:30 am Thursday, June 18, 2026
By Elizabeth Graeme
Last weekend I had the honor of competing for the world’s title of Young Miss FACS Worldwide 2026-2027 and guess what? I actually won! Crazy, right? There were girls from India, Canada and other countries competing. As the international queen, I was invited to Arkansas as “visiting royalty” for the FACS national pageant where girls competed for the USA title and got to help crown them.
What is the FACS pageant? F.A.C.S. stands for Fight Against Childhood Starvation. In addition to a pageant, it is also a non-profit organization in Arkansas that works nationally toward ending childhood hunger. The pageant encourages girls and women to go out and find ways to support the FACS mission. Over the last year I have been working on a project for FACS called “Sharing the Harvest” where I’ve been learning about the different organizations in our community that help people with food and resource insecurity. I’ve been volunteering, creating social media videos and gathering donations to help where I can.
What did I win? Well, a LOT actually! We all got gifts like a necklace from Tiffany’s, a cruise to the Bahamas and a trip to Disneyworld! All amazing, right? But the REAL prize is I get to help make the world a better place. Getting to spend another year with my FACS sisters, getting to spend another year working on my project to help end hunger for kids. Why is that so important? Every child deserves the chance to thrive. Hunger can seriously affect their health and can make learning difficult. Even if hunger isn’t a problem in your household, it can still affect you indirectly. Ending hunger reduces long-term social and healthcare costs. Children who are well-nourished are more likely to become better workers, engaged citizens, volunteers, leaders, and parents who help build communities.
Everyone tends to think about pageants as being a few moments on stage, wearing a beautiful dress and answering a few questions. In reality a pageant often lasts an entire year and that moment on stage is the very last step of the process. You start with a small, local title, in my case I just applied for it on-line and FACS reviewed it an decided I was a good candidate for a small local title. Once you get your title, you spend the next year researching the pageant, working on your platform (community service project), creating social media posts, logging volunteer hours and working on creating a resume. At the very end I had an interview with 3 or 4 judges that lasted several minutes where they asked me questions about my resume. Questions like how will I balance school, activities and holding a title? Or, talk about why childhood hunger matters to me. After that I did a fun fashion and evening gown walk. I did my entire competition on-line via Zoom, because it’s very difficult for people overseas to travel to the USA. After all that I had to wait until everyone else was done competing to find out if I won or not. Can’t lie, I didn’t think I was going to win! All those millions of intrusive thoughts about how I wish I’d answered a question better, or how I wish I’d spent more time practicing my walking.
Nationals was SO much fun! I had to fly down to Hot Springs, Arkansas. Day 1 was registration where everyone gets their information and gets to meet each other. Then at night we had a royal pajama party where everyone wore blue satin pajamas, but so I wasn’t mistaken for one of the girls competing, I had red satin pajamas. Day 2 I got up early to get my hair and make-up done. The girls had interview first, I got to help entertain the littlest girls while they waited for their turn then go watch everyone rehearse. After lunch was Fun Fashion where you get to wear anything you want, most girls pick dresses with big skirts to twirl or capes, some wear a lot of fringe or bellbottoms. For dinner we had a gala and wore derby attire, even my parents got dressed up. We had dinner and got some awards, I got the Trailblazer trophy. Day 3 was the last day, evening gown competition, crowning and contract signing. I got to help sash and crown the winners on stage and afterwards everyone took a lot of photos and got our contracts.
Contracts are a major part of pageants. It lays out the rules you have to follow as a title holder. Both I and my parents have to read and sign it before I am officially a titleholder. Rules like you can’t compete in other pageants. You must log a minimum of 5 hours of community service every month. And lots more. As fun as a pageant is, it’s a lot of work. Everything leading up to it is kind of like a job interview and the crown is the job. You spend the year showing the judges what you will do as the queen. Then once you’re queen you have to actually do those things, or they can ask you to give the crown back.
If you’d like to find out more about how you can help end childhood starvation or would like to compete next year, you can check it all out at www.facsworldwidepageants.com.
