Cheslie Kryst, representing North Carolina, was crowned Miss USA 2019 at the 68th Miss USA pageant held at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nevada, on Thursday, May 2.
Kryst will represent the U.S at the 68th Miss Universe 2019 competition, taking place in South Korea.
She was crowned Miss USA 2019 on Thursday after she was crowned Miss North Carolina USA 2019 in October 2018. She is the third North Carolina woman to win Miss USA.
How old is Cheslie Kryst?
Cheslie was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, on April 28, 1991. At 28, she is officially the oldest contestant to ever win the Miss USA pageant crown.
Cheslie’s parents and family
Cheslie Kryst’s mother is April Simpkins and her stepdad is David Simpkins, an attorney from South Carolina.
Her mother, a former human resource manager, was Mrs. North Carolina US in 2002. She also won the Ms. Petite North Carolina contest for women 5 feet, 5 inches and under.
Cheslie has five siblings.
Cheslie won her first beauty pageant in ninth grade
Cheslie told the Charlotte Observer that she won her first pageant when she was in the ninth-grade at Rock Hill’s Northwestern High School. She was crowned Miss Freshman.
She’s got brains, beauty, and athletic talent
In 2013, Cheslie graduated cum laude with a Bachelors degree in marketing and human resource management from the Honor’s College at the University of South Carolina.
While at the University of South Carolina, she was a member of the Alpha Lambda Delta honor society. She was also a Division I athlete and a member of South Carolina’s track and field teams, competing in the long jump, triple jump and the heptathlon.
She is ranked in the top ten in South Carolina’s record books for triple jump.
She obtained a Juris Doctor and MBA degree in 2017 from the Wake Forest University School of Law in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
She is licensed to practice law in North and South Carolina. She works as a civil litigation attorney at Poyner Spruill LLP, specializing in business law.
She revealed on her Instagram account that she was sworn into the North Carolina bar on September 28, 2017.
“It was one of the proudest moments of my life. This morning I had the privilege of being sworn into the South Carolina Bar,” she wrote. “Praise God for helping me to remain undefeated on the bar exam!!”
She is a fashion blogger and Instagram star
Chelsie founded the fashion blog, White Collar Glam, that focuses on women’s workwear fashion.
She maintains an Instagram account for her White Collar Glam website on which she posts photos to give women workwear fashion inspiration. The account also has thousands of followers, while her own personal Instagram account has over 72,000 followers.
“Blogging about fashion in the workplace is important to me because I want women to be armed for the workplace in clothing that will put us in the best possible position to achieve success,” she told NC Bar Blog.
Cheslie Kryst has a separate official Instagram account as Miss USA which she shares with Miss Teen USA Kaleigh Garris from Connecticut. The account has more than 620,000 followers.