Nitaya Panemalaythong was skeptical when a friend suggested she look into the Miss Minnesota USA competition last year. She’d done some modeling before, but thought, “No, that’s not my thing.

But if there was anyone that was going to get me to change my mind, it would be someone like Halima Aden, who became the first woman to wear a hijab in the Miss Minnesota USA pageant, or the just ...

Mikayla Holmgren already made history by competing in the Miss Minnesota USA pageant Jason Hahn is a former Human Interest and Sports Reporter for PEOPLE. He started at PEOPLE's Los Angeles Bureau ...

But just four months later, Kolbow was named Miss Black Minnesota 2008, and is now on her way to representing the Land of 10,000 Lakes in the Miss Black USA 2008 Scholarship Pageant. “I think it’s ...