Miss Rhode Island Teen USA 2023 Lola Paolissi is a Lasalle Academy sophomore and honor student.  Lola is a member of the Lasalle dance company and her ambition is to obtain a degree in dance arts from the Juilliard school of New York and to purse a career in the dance world. Dance has always been a huge part of Lola’s life, currently she holds two regional dance titles “Miss Teen Imagine” and “Miss Teen Dancin in the streets.”  She was also awarded a scholarship to AMDA college of the Performing arts in Los Angeles as well as a full scholarship to LUME (A professional dance training program & collective with a focus on industry experience and preparation for the professional dance world.)

Lola is happiest when she is on stage or in the studio and she is very passionate about the arts being beneficial to teens.  “Dance has gotten me through some of the most difficult times in my life and has been my outlet for emotional release, It has helped me through stress and anxiety that I have encountered.” Lola’s long term goal is to start her own non profit organization that helps to give access to the arts to children who are struggling, be it stress, anxiety, depression, body image or just the pressures teens face daily.  She is passionate about kids having access to safe places that they can have an emotional release as well as improve mood, help eliminate social anxiety and learn self improvement and grit as well as helping to maintain a healthy life style.

Being raised her whole life by a single mom, Lola knows the sacrifices her mom has made to give her the best dance education possible and she feels all kids should have the opportunity regardless of income or circumstances; that is why this non profit is a huge goal of hers that she WILL accomplish. Giving back to her community has been a huge part of Lola’s upbringing.  By the age of 10, Lola had received her first community service award for her work in her community (the Isabella Corcelli community service award.)

Last year was a particularly emotional year for Lola, Her friend and teammate Izzy Major was diagnosed with leukemia. This diagnosis hit Lola and her team/dance community extremely hard. They spent months wearing orange for Izzy, shining lights up to Izzy’s room at Hasbro Children’s Hospital every night after dance and even dressing up in blow up costumes to preform outside for Izzy and the other kids.  Lola also had a special performance where she dedicated a special solo to Izzy entitled “The Prayer.” The tomorrow fund is one of the amazing organizations that is dear to Izzy and her family and Lola would love to spend her year showcasing and bringing awareness to the wonderful things that they do for kids and families of kids fighting cancer.

When Lola is not in the dance studio, or at a dance competition, she wants everyone to know that she is just a regular kid who loves to hang out with her friends, loves Starbucks, Pinkberry and pasta from Venda Ravioli as well as scary movies and adding to her sneaker collection! She loves to travel and is a lover of Disney and animals and she cannot wait for the next BIG thing on her life agenda…… Her drivers license!