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 South Carolina 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.
South Carolina is one of the few states where their inaugural Miss Teen USA titleholder, Elizabeth Woodard (1983), went on to win the Miss title. Even more unusual they also had a second, Angela Shuler (1986), within the 1980s. Two more 1980s titleholders also competed for the Miss title, but did not win.
More recently South Carolina has been represented by former Teens at Miss USA in 4 of 7 years from 2018-2024, an incredible 100% success rate for former Teens competing at the state level during that period.
1989
1
Angela Shuler (1986)
Top 5/6
1
Lauren Poppell (1993)
Non-finalist
4
Elizabeth Woodward (1983), Angela Shuler (1986), Sarah Medley (2001), Tori Sizemore (2013)
* Where the semi-finalists are cut in multiple stages before the top 5 or 6
1987
1
Elizabeth Woodward (1983)
1999
1
Lauren Poppell (1993)
2005
1
Sarah Medley (2001)
1980s
2
Beth Woodard (1983), Angela Shuler (1986)
1990s
1
Lauren Poppell (1993)
2000s
1
Sarah Medley (2001)
2010s
4
Megan Pinckney (2010), Tori Sizemore (2013), Marley Stokes (2016), Kirby Elizabeth Self (2018)
States competed in: South Carolina, California, North Carolina
Jennifer is the mother of Miss Teen USA 2014 K Lee Graham!
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
4
Beth Woodard (1983), Jennifer Neuen (1985), Angela Shuler (1986), Michelle Warner (1989)
1990s
4
Kathryn Hancock (1990), Lauren Poppell (1993), Caroline Brigman (1997), Hannah Grooms (1999)
2000s
4
Sarah Medley (2001), Austen Brown (2002), Lindsey Sporrer (2004), Lauren Taylor (2005)
2010s
5
Megan Pinckney (2010), Keyla Childs (2011), Tori Sizemore (2013), Marley Stokes (2016), Kirby Elizabeth Self (2018)
