Miss Hawaiʻi 2023, Star Dahl-Thurston, spoke to The Conversation about her year-long reign and the challenges of being in the public eye.
Thurston entered the pageant a few years ago as a tribute to her late mother.
"I never really imagined that I would win or find success there, but I thought, you know, all I have to give is that I lost my mom and it was devastating and that there's a way out of that," Thurston said. "There was a long time that I didn't think that there was going to be a way out of that pain that I had felt."
Thurston shared her difficulties of "needing to live up to the success."
"Once people see you succeed, they'll like build you up, build you up, build you up, until they're going to tear you down," Thurston said. "And everybody always wants more."
Prior to being Miss Hawaiʻi, Thurston won Miss Chinatown. Six months later, she competed in the Miss Hawaiʻi Competition.
"Nobody has what you have to offer," Thurston said. "And I think that that is so special. And so how I would encourage someone who wanted to achieve something that didn't feel possible, would be to take off the cap of what is possible."
Hayley Cheyney-Kāne was crowned Miss Hawaiʻi 2024 on June 23.
This interview aired on The Conversation on July 1, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
