One of my favourite sections of the site (even if I’ve never settled on the perfect name for it!), a look at all the Miss Arizona Teen USA titleholders who’ve gone on to compete at Miss USA or in other state pageants. It’s always inspiring to see where their journeys have taken them — whether they won a crown early on, competed once or twice and then hung up the heels or kept showing up year after year, showing persistence in their quest to walk the Miss USA stage.
Alaska has one of the lowest rates of former Teen titleholders returning to compete in Miss and only three have won Miss Alaska USA and competed at Miss USA. Unusually, all three won within two or three years of holding their Teen title.
My records may be inaccurate for the early 1980s and 1990s but I have only one former Teen from the 1990s recorded as competing in Miss – Laurie Miller (1997), who won in 2000, and won from the 2000s, Laurie’s Teen sister titleholder Christina Olejniczak (2000) who won in 2002. More have returned in the 2010s but only Kimberly Agron (2013) was able to win the crown.
Top 15
1
Danielle Demski (1999)
1988
1
Kris Keim (1983)
2000
1
Heather Keckler (1992)
2004
1
Danielle Demski (1999)
2019
1
Savannah Wix (2014)
1980s
1
Kris Keim (1983)
1990s
2
Heather Keckler (1992), Danielle Demski (1999)
2000s
0
2020s
0
Winners highlighted in italics. Stats may be inaccurate, especially for the 1980s & 1990s as I am reliant on newspaper archives which do not list all contestants.
1980s
1
Kris Keim (1983)
1990s
3
Heather Keckler (1992), Kristy Kay Stover (1998), Danielle Demski (1999)
2000s
4
Natalia Benenson (2003), Tiffany Martin (2007), Ashley Stainton (2008), Whitney Nelson (2009)
2020s
0
Arizona, Missouri, Utah
1st runner-up
3
Kristie Kay Stover (1998), Natalie Benenson (2003), Alexa Zellers (2012)
4th runner-up
1
Ashley Stainton (2008)
Semi-finalist
2
Tiffany Martin (2007), Whitney Williams (2009)
