NHS’s Elle Sauli Named Miss Connecticut Teen USA 2018

Published: January 20, 2018

Newtown High School senior Elle Sauli is hoping her latest achievement, earning the title of Miss Connecticut Teen USA 2018, will help her spread the “Lunch Love” program she started this year in Newtown schools.

Elle was named Miss Connecticut Teen USA at the competition held at The Palace Theatre in Stamford on January 6.

“It was absolutely amazing,” Elle reflected on January 11, about the entire weekend of the competition.

This is her seventh year competing in pageants.

Her mother, Natalie, was approached with the idea of finding an agent for Elle to model when she was young. Eventually Elle modeled for Hanes, Martha Stewart, H&M, and more. Ms Sauli said her daughter was in print advertisements before also appearing in commercials and movies. When she was 11, Elle competed in her first pageant competition. It was in Massachusetts, and she was the third runner-up, Elle said. A few years later, Elle was crowned Miss Northern States Jr Teen 2014 during the New England Miss American Coed (MAC) Pageant, as The Newtown Bee reported at the time.

At the 2018 Miss Connecticut USA & 2018 Miss Connecticut Teen USA Pageant, Elle said roughly 20 friends and family were in the audience.
“I was so happy,” said Elle.

Elle will now begin to prepare for the national competition of the program, which will be held this summer. “There’s a lot of prep work that I have to do to get ready for nationals,” noted, adding that she will be training with a team in a number of areas, including interviewing, walking, and fitness.

Elle is also expected to make appearances at events as this year’s Miss Connecticut Teen USA.

All of the interviews and events she will attend as Miss Connecticut Teen USA will give her a chance to share information about the Lunch Love fundraising program. Elle was celebrated by the Newtown Board of Education at its December 19 meeting for creating the program, which raises funds for students who cannot afford lunch. For the program, students across the district, with the help of local PTA members, were asked to decorate heart-shaped cards and donate $2. The money raised will be used in accounts overseen by district food service provider Whitsons Culinary Group. Accounts will be maintained for each school and will be used to provide lunches for students with no money in their personal accounts for lunch. Lunch Love raised $2,000 across all of Newtown’s public schools this year.

As she is halfway through her senior year at NHS, Elle said some of her student requirements are winding down, but her added responsibilities require “just a lot of time management.” Like other NHS students, Elle just submitted college applications. She wants to study marketing and work in fashion marketing after graduating from college.

Elle expressed gratitude for being named Miss Connecticut Teen USA, and she shared her hope that Lunch Love will expand on a larger scale, “hopefully all over Connecticut.”

Throughout her pageant career so far, Elle said her family members — mom Natalie, father Michael, twin brother Vincenzo, and younger brother Broden — have been supportive of her.

“My mom and grandmother [Sandee Grehl of Danbury] are pretty much my managers,” Elle said, adding that her mom has attended each of her events.

Ms Sauli said the Newtown community has been supporting Elle throughout her pageant journey, and Elle said local businesses have also helped her.

“Everybody here is just so supportive,” said Elle.

“We are extremely, extremely proud of her,” Ms Sauli said, sharing that it is exciting that her daughter is achieving her dream. “I can’t wait to see what happens, more in her future, to see what she is going to do.”

https://newtownbee.com/nhss-elle-sauli-named-miss-connecticut-teen-usa-2018/