These women were queens of regional pageants. Can they win South Carolina’s crowns?

Four local pageant titleholders will compete in Charleston Saturday for coveted state title crowns.

Miss South Carolina Strawberry Festival Daisy Burroughs will compete for the Miss South Carolina USA crown. Teen Miss Strawberry Festival Alissa Ilacqua, Miss Fort Mill Teen USA Lydia Hughes and Miss York County Teen USA Lexie Ratliff will compete for the title of Miss South Carolina Teen USA.

This is Burroughs’ second year in a row competing for the Miss SC USA crown. Last year, the 25-year-old Winthrop University graduate scratched competing in the pageant off her bucket list and brought home the title of Miss Congeniality. Competing in the pageant was something Burroughs, a public relations and marketing professional with Piedmont Medical Center, said she never would have considered doing earlier in life.

“I was too bullied, too picked on, too shy to compete,” she said.

Youth Leadership Development is Burroughs’ platform and something she is passionate about because of the difference it made in her life.

“I participated in Youth Corp – that’s where the tide started to turn for me,” she said.

Now she’s on a mission to help young people understand their worth and shine a light on the issue of bullying.

“They need an advocate,” Burroughs said. “(The crown) is a means to get to the message and the mission.”

Miss Fort Mill Teen USA Lydia Hughes, 18, is competing in the state pageant with hopes of expanding awareness of her platform, Children’s Miracle Network. Through the organization, Hughes has raised hundreds of dollars’ worth of toys and monetary donations for children at Christmas the past two years. The Fort Mill High School graduate is currently a freshman at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina. She is on the pre-nursing track and plans to become a pediatric nurse.

Hughes said she is “beyond words excited,” to compete.

“I’m going to be happy with any outcome and I want to wish the best of luck to the other local girls,” Hughes said. “It’s about where it takes you and if you win, where the crown takes you.”

Teen Miss Strawberry Festival Alissa Ilacqua, 17, is competing to raise awareness for her platform, animal rescue.

“Most of (the animals) come from unfortunate circumstances and they don’t deserve to be treated like that,” said Ilacqua, who volunteers at the Humane Society of York County in Fort Mill each week.

Ilacqua, a junior at Nation Ford High, has her heart set on attending Duke University and an eventual career as an OB/GYN. .

“That is my absolute number one dream,” she says.

Holding the title of Teen Strawberry Queen has had a major impact on her life, Ilacqua said,

“It’s the most important thing I’ve done so far,” Ilacqua said. “If I wasn’t the Strawberry Queen I wouldn’t get to meet these amazing people that live here.”

Miss York County Teen USA Lexie Ratliff, 16, is proud to raise awareness for her platform of Concussion Awareness and Education. Ratliff suffered a severe concussion during her freshman year at NaFo when she was hit in the head by a color guard flag. Her injuries caused her to miss four and-a-half months of school her freshman year and her full recovery took more than a year.

There are many misconceptions about concussions in general and about the length of recovery time for severe concussions, Ratliff said.

“It can be very scary with a brain injury when you don’t know what is happening or what is going to happen,” she said.

Ratliff has participated in a fundraiser for the Brain Injury Association and is working on creating a program to assist teachers helping students with concussion injuries. She is also a counselor at Camp Thunderbird, a Girl Scout and has volunteered with many organizations.

Ratliff is working toward the Congressional Medal Community Service Award as well as the Lifetime Presidential Service Award, which requires 3,000 hours of community service.

This story was originally published November 15, 2017 at 3:35 PM with the headline "These women were queens of regional pageants. Can they win South Carolina’s crowns?."