{"id":99629,"date":"2025-02-05T09:58:34","date_gmt":"2025-02-05T19:58:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hawaii.carpentermediagroup.com\/midweekpro\/?p=99629"},"modified":"2025-02-05T09:58:34","modified_gmt":"2025-02-05T19:58:34","slug":"crowning-glory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hawaii.carpentermediagroup.com\/midweekpro\/crowning-glory\/","title":{"rendered":"Crowning Glory"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Blessed with an affinity for helping people (especially women) and pets, it\u2019s little wonder why Emily Smith is the proud holder of this year\u2019s Miss Asia USA \u2013 America title. | Photo by Lawrence Tabudlo<\/p><\/div>\n

It was a decade ago when Emily Smith entered her very first pageant and found herself crying.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really afraid of being in front of people and really afraid of being on stage,\u201d recalls the Mililani resident, who was just 13 years old at the time. \u201cMy mom forced me into pageants \u2026 I really didn\u2019t want to do it, but being an only child and then also going to a really small private school \u2026 it was a great way for me to meet new people, grow my confidence and make new friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now 22, and the reigning Miss Asia USA \u2013 America 2025, Smith has not only grown to love pageants, but she\u2019s also started a pageant coaching business, Elevated Pageant Coaching.<\/p>\n

\u201cI help people with their interview skills, their walking and posing, wardrobe consultations, and just overall helping them with their confidence on and off stage,\u201d she says. \u201cI think especially as you start getting out of school, which is the age that I\u2019m at right now and the age of a lot of girls that I coach, you start to lose your sense of goals and a timeline. <\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like pageants are a great way to have those goals but continue to grow yourself and your confidence because it constantly takes you outside of your comfort zone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born in Okayama, Japan, where she lived for about four years before moving to Malaysia for another four years and then settling in Hawai\u2018i, Smith attended Ho\u2018\u0101la School in Wahiaw\u0101. She later went to University of Hawai\u2018i at M\u0101noa, where she earned a degree in communications, and eventually landed at University of Southern California, where she obtained her master\u2019s in communication management.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom really loved the culture here, especially being from Japan, we knew we wanted to move abroad to a different country but we still wanted a place that had strong Japanese roots,\u201d says Smith when explaining what brought her family to Hawai\u2018i. \u201cThe culture here is very similar to the culture in Japan \u2014 the food, the people and the diversity.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Miss Asia USA \u2013 America, Smith chose to honor her Japanese heritage in the national costume phase of the competition, wearing an innovative kimono dress designed by renowned costume designer and certified kimono specialist Sueko Oshimoto, whose work can be seen on the Emmy-winning show Shogun.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was one of the bigger pageants I\u2019ve competed in,\u201d says Smith, who is of Japanese and Welsh ancestries. \u201cOne thing I love about this pageant was specifically the cultural attire segment \u2026 mine specifically was a kimono that was a skirt and I turned around on stage and pulled the skirt and it turned into a kimono dress so I had a little bit of a transformation there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The global beauty pageant, which was held last November in Redondo Beach, California, also included swimsuit and evening gown phases of the competition. And, while contestants aren\u2019t required to participate in a platform, Smith plans to use her title to advocate for women.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore this pageant, I had taken a two-year break from pageants, but I felt really motivated by watching my own girls who I was coaching, to step out of my comfort zone and finally do another pageant again,\u201d Smith says. \u201cEverybody has a purpose in life and I really feel as though my purpose in life is helping women \u2026 I think it\u2019s important because women are not often in spaces like entrepreneurship or STEM, and a huge part of that comes not because women aren\u2019t able to fill those roles, but because women don\u2019t have the confidence to fill those roles.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy motto or my philosophy as a pageant coach is not only to give my girls the confidence to compete on stage but to help them grow their confidence and their skills to be able to be the best version of themselves \u2014 the best woman that they can be outside of the stage as well, and conquer any challenges or goals that they have outside of pageantry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Helping others is nothing new for Smith. In 2018, she was recognized by members of the Hawai\u2018i Senate for her selection to the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals, for the state of Hawai\u2018i. It\u2019s the largest youth recognition program in the U.S., and Smith was acknowledged for her work as founder of Lend-a-Paw, a pet-rescue organization that aims to ensure that shelter animals are well-fed and able to live in safe environments.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe provide goods and services for animals in need,\u201d explains Smith, who has a toy poodle named Hamilton. \u201cI also created a children\u2019s book teaching kids why it is important to be a responsible pet owner and how to take care of animals, and what types of food they can and can\u2019t eat. I also have a book that teaches people and kids how to make dog treats for them to donate to animal shelters. On top of that, we do a lot of donation drives. I always felt a passion toward animals.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also supports Aloha Harvest, helping with its food drives since she was in high school, and, as an avid reader, regularly donates her books to the public libraries.
\n\u201cI love reading \u2014 my favorite books were the Harry Potter series,\u201d Smith shares. \u201cI love being able to escape while I\u2019m reading, but now that I\u2019m a pageant coach and now that I\u2019ve been studying and got my master\u2019s degree in communications, I also love different self-help books. I think they really help people identify the flaws about themselves and how they can change those flaws to become a better person.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy favorite would be How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie.\u201d
\nSmith notes that Miss Asia USA \u2013 America was \u201c my eighth or ninth pageant\u201d (she\u2019s also held the titles of Miss Hawai\u2018i Collegiate, Miss Hawai\u2018i Junior Teen and Miss Asian Global Second Princess), and while she doesn\u2019t have plans to enter another beauty competition, she insists that \u201c(I\u2019d) never say never.\u201d For now, she\u2019s focused on her role as a pageant coach who continues to have a positive impact on people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven after my reign is done, I\u2019ll still be coaching and volunteering in our community as I have been for years,\u201d says Smith. \u201cIt\u2019s not only the title that makes me someone who\u2019s motivated and wants to help our community, it\u2019s who I am as a person.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was a decade ago when Emily Smith entered her very first pageant and found herself crying. \u201cI was really..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":99630,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cover-story"],"yoast_head":"\nCrowning Glory - MidWeek<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hawaii.carpentermediagroup.com\/midweekpro\/crowning-glory\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Crowning Glory - MidWeek\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It was a decade ago when Emily Smith entered her very first pageant and found herself crying. \u201cI was really..\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/hawaii.carpentermediagroup.com\/midweekpro\/crowning-glory\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"MidWeek\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-02-05T19:58:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/hawaii.carpentermediagroup.com\/midweekpro\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/02\/mw-cover-020525-emily-smith-lt001.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"533\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David Bock\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"David Bock\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hawaii.carpentermediagroup.com\\\/midweekpro\\\/crowning-glory\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hawaii.carpentermediagroup.com\\\/midweekpro\\\/crowning-glory\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"David Bock\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hawaii.carpentermediagroup.com\\\/midweekpro\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/63c05e6fb4a9d89089862be7c6984c8a\"},\"headline\":\"Crowning Glory\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-02-05T19:58:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hawaii.carpentermediagroup.com\\\/midweekpro\\\/crowning-glory\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1149,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hawaii.carpentermediagroup.com\\\/midweekpro\\\/crowning-glory\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hawaii.carpentermediagroup.com\\\/midweekpro\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/12\\\/2025\\\/02\\\/mw-cover-020525-emily-smith-lt001.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"MW Cover Story\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hawaii.carpentermediagroup.com\\\/midweekpro\\\/crowning-glory\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hawaii.carpentermediagroup.com\\\/midweekpro\\\/crowning-glory\\\/\",\"name\":\"Crowning Glory - 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