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 Iowa 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.
Despite 17 Miss Iowa Teen USA titleholders competing at the state level, only four Miss Iowa Teen USA titleholders have won Miss Iowa USA. The most notable is Miss Teen USA 1992 Jamie Solinger who competed at Miss USA 1998.
Richelle Orr (2011) became the first 2011 teen to win a Miss title when she won Miss Iowa USA 2013, and the first Iowa Teen to win since Jamie in 1998. This gap came despite the fact that seven of the Miss Iowa Teen USA titleholders from the 2000s have returned to compete – none have won but I’ll add “so far” because Danielle Malatek (2006) returned to the Miss Iowa USA stage in 2024, after the age limit was taken away.
Iowa’s former teens have competed in five states in addition to Iowa – Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, New York and Rhode Island.
Semi-finalist
1
Jan Hoyer (1987)
1993
1
Jan Hoyer (1987)
1998
1
Jamie Solinger (1992)
1980s
1
Jan Hoyer (1987)
1990s
1
Jamie Solinger (1992)
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
Jan Hoyer (1987)
1990s
4
Jamie Solinger (1992), Chelsey Ridge (1995), Arianna Kem (1998), Teresa Moberg (1999)
2000s
7
Ashley Hanson (2001), Alyssa Cook (2003), Jocelyn Borkowski (2005), Danielle Malatek (2006), Dakota Crosswhite (2007), Emily Bey (2008), Allyson Hovda (2009)
Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, New York, Rhode Island
1st runner-up
1
Dakota Crosswhite (2007)
Semi-finalist
5
Chelsey Ridge (1995), Alyssa Cook (2003), Danielle Malatek (2006), Allyson Hovda (2009), Erica Lansman (2010)
Non-finalist
2
Teresa Moberg (1999), Emily Bey (2008)
