Pageant life for many starts at an early age, especially in the South. While most adolescent contestants busy themselves with evening gowns and interview questions, a young Annette Addo-Yobo was adjusting to life in a new country after her family emigrated from Ghana in 1999. As the former Miss Dallas and the newly-crowned Miss Southlake, Annette looks back at how far she’s come and the people who helped her along the way.
I WAS A YEAR AND A HALF OLD WHEN… my parents brought me to America with just two cases and a few hundred dollars. They had everything in Ghana — their own business, their own house, all of their families. They left everything behind and gave it all up just to pursue a better life for themselves and me and my siblings.
I ALWAYS WANTED TO… compete in pageants while growing up, but when I looked up the requirements, I found out that I had to be a U.S. citizen. I knew citizenship was going to take a long time, so I just kind of threw that dream out the window.
AFTER I BECAME A CITIZEN LAST YEAR, I… was eligible to compete in my very first Miss competition. I had no prep and no idea what I was getting myself into. I just showed up with a travel-sized suitcase, my purse and a plastic bag for my garments. I saw all of these girls with wheeling closets and tons of suitcases, and I was thinking to myself ‘I’m not going to win.’ To my surprise, I ended up winning Miss Dallas on my very first try.
I DIDN’T GROW UP COMPETING IN... pageants. I didn’t know there was a pageant brand or look. I wasn’t pretending to be anybody else or fill in some type of role. I just went in as myself. Looking back, I think that’s what helped me to win.
MOST CONTESTANTS WILL USUALLY… sing, dance or play an instrument for the talent portion. I performed a spoken word called ‘Knock Knock’ by Daniel Beaty. It’s from the perspective of a young boy and everything he missed out on because his dad was in prison. I walked up to the stage with an orange jumpsuit and handcuffs on, and I spoke from the perspective of losing my mom and feeling chained to my experiences. It was different and unexpected, but it made me stand out and the judges remembered me for it.
WHEN I COMPETED IN MISS SOUTHLAKE… I had a lot more confidence and knew what I was doing the second time around. Last year, I was the rookie who didn’t know what to do and was always asking questions. This time, I was the expert in the room and I was the one answering the questions. It was a full-circle kind of moment, and it showed how much I’ve grown over the past year.
WINNING MISS DALLAS AND MISS SOUTHLAKE… has given my family something they can hold onto. My mom would have loved to know this was worth everything they left behind. To be able to see her children are all successful and doing these incredible things, it’s a great honor to kind of give back to my parents for all they had to give up just to be here.
THIS ORGANIZATION REALLY… changed my life over the course of two years. There’s so much you gain, from personal development to the confidence to talk to people and the opportunity to build your own platform. To be able to say I’m a regular girl who is also Miss Southlake, I think that’s opened doors for a lot of people to feel they don’t have to grow up in pageantry in order to do something special.