YouTube/2025 Miss America Live
Southlake's Annette Addo-Yobo was named First Runner Up at the 2025 Miss America Pageant on Jan. 5 after previously being named Miss Dallas, Miss Southlake and, in 2024, Miss Texas.
Miss Alabama Abbie Stockard, 22, was crowned Miss America at the event in Orlando.
Addo-Yobo performed slam poetry during her portion of the Talent Performance. She was also asked about immigration by the judges, a topic she knows well.
Before the accolades, it was an intimidating beginning to the pageant circle for Addo-Yobo, who, as a brand-new United States citizen, was just happy to begin competing once her eligibility kicked in.
"I had no prep and no idea what I was getting myself into," she said. "I just showed up [for the Miss Dallas pageant] 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."
As Miss Texas, Addo-Yobo's platform was autism awareness in honor of her brother, who she said is on the spectrum. She also said her pageant victories were a kind of 'thank you' to her parents, who Addo-Yobo said "left everything behind [in Ghana]" so she and her brother could have a better life in America.
"My mom would have loved to know this was worth everything they left behind," she said. "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."