Recent BCSD graduate is crowned Miss South Carolina Teen 2021, preps for national title

Abigail Hutchinson Jul 14, 2021

Dabria Aguilar, (center) who graduated from Hanahan High School, was crowned with the title of Miss South Carolina Teen 2021. Provided.

Dabria Aguilar, a recent graduate from Hanahan High School, has been crowned Miss South Carolina Teen 2021.

Her path started as a simple recommendation from someone in a dress store urging Aguilar to look into participating in pageants.

Now, Aguilar is less than a month away from competing for a national title at the 2021 Miss America’s Outstanding Teen in Orlando, Fla.

When she was first approached with the idea of being in a pageant, Aguilar says it didn’t take long to make up her mind about competing.

“I was like ‘why not,’ ” Aguilar said.

From there, she began preparing for Miss South Carolina teen USA, where she placed first runner up. Not long after that, a local executive director for the Miss South Carolina organization contacted Aguilar about entering Miss Capital City Teen. Once again Aguilar decided to go for it.

“From the first pageant that I did, I just decided I’m going to go in and my intentions were to just have the best time possible, to just be myself, make as many friends as possible and just get everything out of it as I possibly could,” Aguilar said.

Her extensive involvement in dance throughout the past several years made being on stage something far from new to her.

“I felt like I was just up there being myself and getting everything out of it that I possibly could,” she said.

Aguilar, who first began dancing when she was three years old, had always thought being involved in the Miss South Carolina organization would be fun but rarely had time to consider it between juggling school and dance.

“I have trained with everything, but contemporary ballet is definitely something that I plan to continue to pursue at a professional level,” said Aguilar, who performed a contemporary ballet piece called “Brotsjor” as her talent during the recent pageant.

“It felt like the solo really embodied everything that I wanted to be. I had strength yet sensitivity and all these different dimensions to it. It really felt like it represented who I am,” Aguilar explained.

Being crowned as Miss South Carolina Teen brought home a new set of responsibilities for Aguilar, as well as a substantial cash prize.

“It’s a lot of responsibility, I know that I have a good heart and that my intentions are pure so having this responsibility is definitely something that I have already loved,” said Aguilar.

She earned a $10,000 cash prize for her recent victory and an additional $13,500 in scholarships from winning other awards throughout the talent preliminaries such as a rookie award, the Rachel Wyatt Dance Award, the talent preliminary award and the overall talent award.

Aguilar’s involvement in her social initiative was one of the larger focuses of the pageant experience. The initiative is called “Make Everybody Feel Like somebody,” which Aguilar explains is all about speaking out about the debilitating effects of low self-esteem, an effort close to her own heart.

“Going into freshman year I really struggled with that,” Aguilar said, noting that it wasn’t until she got involved with a special education class at her high school that things began to change.

“From the moment I walked into the doors, they made me feel like somebody and they really looked beneath the surface of the initial judgment of what everybody else saw, which was my following on social media or the fact that I wanted to dance,” Aguilar said.

“They saw my heart and the purity of who I was and that’s what changed my intentions for myself and who I wanted to be. It was their conversations and their one on one dance parties that just gave me so much true happiness that it motivated a true change of heart for me and made me realize I want to be the light for others and give others the opportunity to see that change of heart and newfound happiness in the world.”

For now, Aguilar says she plans to take a gap year before going to college to focus on pursuing dance professionally. She also plans to dedicate a large part of her time to serving the state with her recently acquired role.

As the Miss America’s Outstanding Teen pageant, which is currently scheduled for Friday, July 30, inches closer on the calendar, Aguilar is continuing to prepare for another round of pageants.

https://www.postandcourier.com/berkeley-independent/news/recent-bcsd-graduate-is-crowned-miss-south-carolina-teen-2021-preps-for-national-title/article_1c936582-df82-11eb-b182-9319244572a0.html