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17/09/2022
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Allen Wallace Sep 17, 2022
Meera Bhonslé Miss SC USA Photo credit: Miss SC USA
On October 3, a lifelong dream will come true for a Lexington girl as she represents South Carolina on the Miss USA pageant stage.
Meera Bhonslé is a first-generation American, a University of South Carolina graduate and a former Cola Daily staff writer, and she is now Miss SC USA.
“I've dreamed of this since I was a tiny, tiny little tot. And I honestly didn't know if I would ever make it here, but here I am going to Miss USA wearing South Carolina across my chest,” she says. “Representing my home state is super exciting, but it's also a little nerve-wracking because I want to make sure that I am the best representation of myself as a person and of our state. I just want to do well and make everyone here proud.”
Bhonslé was just five months old when her mother entered her in her first pageant. “I won and the rest is history. Here I am today,” she says, laughing.
She competed in pageants in middle school and high school (at Lexington High School), and as a UofSC student won the Miss Gamecock crown. She then competed for the Miss SC USA crown, winning on her fourth try this past March.
As the daughter of a Salvadorian mother and an Indian father, Bhonslé is very much aware that she is not the old stereotype of a pageant queen.
“It is really cool to kind of break those glass ceilings and those stereotypes, because there are a lot of little kids who might say ‘Oh, she looks a little bit like me, so I could do that someday.’ To be a role model for them is really important and really amazing as well.”
Kids are important to Bhonslé, whose lifetime love of reading inspired her to begin her platform, “Reading is Leading,” in 2014.
Photo Credit: Miss SC USA
“I love children, and my platform reading is based around early childhood literacy in South Carolina. I get to go to schools all over the state and read with kids and talk to them about the importance of literacy, and talk to parents and to our local leaders and state leaders as well, which is a very, very fun thing to do for me,” she says.
The months since winning Miss SC USA have been a whirlwind for Bhonslé, from joining the other Miss USA contestants on a trip to Cancun to meeting with legislators in Washington, but she says her favorite experience wearing the crown was closer to home.
“I was in Pageland, South Carolina for the Pageland Watermelon Festival and the High Point Fire Department let me drive a fire truck! “Lights, sirens on the open roads, I drove the fire truck and it was the coolest thing I have done so far. And I will never not talk about it,” she says.
The next trip for Bhonslé is to Reno, where she and the other state pageant winners will compete for the Miss USA title, with the winner to be crowned October 3.
If she wins, she will move to Los Angeles for the next year to represent her country as Miss USA and compete in the Miss Universe pageant. If she does not finish first, however, she still wins, with the chance to continue representing South Carolina until she crowns her successor in March 2023.
Whether in South Carolina or California, Bhonslé already has a personal celebration planned.
“When all of this is over, I am taking my little rear end all the way to the closest and first barbecue place I can find. I want a fat plate of fried chicken, barbecue, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, rice and gravy, everything. I want everything on the plate and I want no one to look at me and I want to sit in silence and eat the biggest meal of my whole life,” she says with a laugh.
The Miss USA pageant will be broadcast live from Reno’s Grand Sierra Resort & Casino by FYI on October 3rd. Visit fyi.tv for more details. Follow Bhonslé’s adventures leading up to the big moment on Instagram and Facebook.
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