Miss USA has crowned Miss Kentucky the winner of this year’s beauty pageant.
Elle Smith, a broadcast news reporter for WHAS-TV in Louisville, took home the title of Miss USA 2021 at the annual pageant Monday night, November 29, at the River Spirit Casino Resort in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Prior to the pageant, the 23-year-old reflected on her journey from a Miss USA viewer to a competitor.
“A little over a year ago, I sat in bed and watched Miss USA,” she wrote in a Nov. 14 Instagram post. “I remember watching (Miss New York Andreia Gibau), (Miss Ohio Sthephanie Marie Miranda), (Miss Louisiana Mariah Clayton) and so many more incredible women grace the stage, and thinking, ‘I want to be on that stage. I want to be like them.’ Crazy to think this is my official Miss USA headshot and I made that dream reality.”
