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 Kansas 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 more former Teens competing in California than any other stage, very few of them have been home-grown California Teen titleholders and only one Cali teen has ever won the Miss title – Shauna Gambill, who in 1998 came very close to being the first to win both Miss Teen USA and Miss USA outright!
Remarkably, after a string of all but one of the 1991-1996 Miss California Teen USA titleholders competing in Miss, the next to compete was Miss California Teen USA 2010 Emma Baker. Six of the 2010s Teens have returned to compete in Miss but so far none has won a title.
1st runner-up
1
Danielle Boatwright (1992)
Top 5/6
1
Kimberlee Girrens (1986)
Non-finalist
4
Amanda Carraway (1996), Gentry Miller (2006), Jaymie Stokes (2007), Melanie Shaner (2015)
* Where the semi-finalists are cut in multiple stages before the top 5 or 6
1996
1
Danielle Boatwright (1992)
1992
1
Kimberlee Girrens (1986)
1999
1
Amanda Carraway (1996)
1980s
1
Kimberlee Girrens (1986)
1990s
2
Danielle Boatwright (1992), Amanda Carraway (1996)
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
2
Kimberlee Girrens (1986), Stephanie Resnick (1987)
1990s
2
Danielle Boatwright (1992), Amanda Carraway (1996)
2000s
8
Sarah Jump (2000), Amber Ross (2002), Megan Price (2003), Carissa Kelley (2004), Gentry Miller (2006), Jaymie Stokes (2007), Jessie Colonna (2008), Alexis Rewalt (2009)
Kansas, California
Winner
7
Kimberlee Girrens (1986), Danielle Boatwright (1992), Amanda Carraway (1996), Gentry Miller (2006), Jaymie Stokes (2007), Alyssa Klinzing (2013), Melanie Shaner (2015)
1st runner-up
2
Carissa Kelley (2004), Jessie Colonna (2008)
2nd runner-up
4
Stephanie Resnick (1987), Sarah Jump (2000), Megan Price (2003), Madilynn Becker (2021)
