WBZ-TV's Katrina Kincade competes in Miss America competition as first Muslim woman to represent Massachusetts
BOSTON - WBZ-TV's own Katrina Kincade represented the Bay State at the Miss America competition Thursday night. She is the first Muslim woman to ever be crowned Miss Massachusetts.
WBZ-TV's Paula Ebben caught up with Kincade as she prepared for the big night at Mohegan Sun and asked how it feels to represent her community in a pioneering way.
"It feels great - it's just an honor," Kincade said. "I think part of it is representing every woman who's been told they couldn't, shouldn't and wouldn't be here."
Her biggest fans, her family, were at Mohegan Sun to watch her take the stage. Katrina has competed in preliminaries all week. She designed her yellow gown when she was just 13-years-old and this competition was just a distant dream.
"It is surreal," her father Michael Preston Kincade said. "We have been on this journey for a little over 10 years."
Although she did not make the top 10 Thursday night, her family said it was a dream come true to compete.
"You're disappointed, but you're also just so happy for her that she was able to be on that stage tonight," Katrina's sister-in-law Ashley Kincade said.
"She made it here. And if nothing else… this was the dream come true," her father said.
One thing is for certain her family says: despite the glamour of this event, she is still humble, and so proud to be from Boston.
"What I want folks at home to know is that Katrina is exactly who she appears to be," her father said.
"Like she is truly homegrown, homebred," Ashley Kincade said. "She is so happy to represent Massachusetts."
"I'm looking forward to giving her a hug and letting her know how proud I am of her," her father said.
Katrina said that Miss America has come a long way from the stereotype of pageants only recognizing blonde, blue-eyed beauties. As a journalist, she strives to elevate voices that haven't always been listened to in the past.
"We always say America is such a melting pot of people and diversity and I like to represent that," she said. "I like to tell stories from people who look like me, but also people who haven't been up here."
Why compete in Miss America in 2022? Kincade cited one very practical reason.
"Over half of my student loans have been paid off by scholarships I won through the Miss America Organization, and I'm hoping to continue paying that off and even use them to get my master's in media management," she said.
Kincade said that since winning Miss Massachusetts, she's loved seeing the smiles on "star-struck" little girls she meets when she tells them they could wear the crown someday.
"One of the greatest honors of my life has been wearing Massachusetts across my chest and that will never change," she said.
