Alexis Smith, who was crowned Miss Kansas 2024 in June, spoke about her experience with domestic violence during her final interview at the competition.
She shared the video more than a month after Smith won the coveted title on June 8. On social media The pageant highlighted her response to a question about her vision as the next ambassador for the Miss Kansas organization.
In her response, she said her abuser was in the audience.
“My vision as the next Miss Kansas is to end unhealthy and abusive relationships,” she began. “In fact, some of you in this audience will have seen that I am very emotional because there is someone here today who abused me.”
Smith went on to give a powerful and encouraging response to this question:
“But that’s not going to stop me from taking to the stage at Miss Kansas and representing them as the next Miss Kansas because I and my community deserve to have healthy relationships. We deserve to live lives free from domestic violence,” she added.
In the caption, Smith reflected on her experience as Miss Kansas, writing, “An unexpected turn of events occurred when someone I had found healing from attempted to disturb my peace.”
“Instead of remaining silent, I chose to live my vision for a better world,” she added. “I took my power back — not just for myself, but for my dreams and all those who are watching and listening.”
Smith stressed her desire to “use her experience, tools and resources to end unhealthy relationships of all kinds” and to use her “voice and advocacy” to empower others.
“I may be petite but I stand tall with strength, purpose and power with the desire to inspire others to do the same,” she concluded her caption.
Smith received a lot of support in the comments section of her Instagram post, with many praising her for speaking out and sharing their own experiences with domestic violence.
“What a woman. Truly incredible,” one comment read. “As a fellow survivor I am so so so proud of you for reclaiming this moment for yourself. You are going to do amazing things.”
Another commenter, who doesn’t know Smith personally, wrote that they were impressed with her “strength and resilience,” adding, “You are truly a queen inside and out. Thank you for being a beautiful role model to so many.”
Smith also appeared to encourage other women to come forward, including one commenter who described herself as a victim of domestic violence and wrote, “I’m here to help women like us, too.”
TODAY.com reached out to Smith, as well as the Miss Kansas and Miss America organizations, for comment but had not heard back by the time of publication.
In an interview on July 18th KennethSpeaking to an NBC affiliate in Wichita, Kansas, Smith reiterated that as Miss Kansas she wanted to “continue to advocate for healthy relationships” after her “personal experience being in a domestically abusive relationship.”
Smith also said “every single woman” in the family is “affected by domestic violence.”
During her interview with KSNW, she also addressed a social media post in which she shared a now-viral moment at the pageant in which she says the person who abused her was in attendance at the ceremony.
“I’m really excited to have the opportunity to impact not only myself, but other young men and women that domestic violence does not discriminate. I’m excited to do this on a large scale,” she added.
A few weeks ago, Smith told KWCH 12 An Instagram clip shared on July 9. Her “reclaiming respect” message focuses on healthy relationships.
“This was born out of my personal experience of being caught up in the cycle of domestic violence, so I wanted to get that message out there, because at the end of the day, we’re all about relationships, not just intimate ones, and I wanted to get that message out to young people,” Smith said.
She told the station that she uses her “special talent” of ventriloquism to get her message across to young audiences.
“I’ve been a ventriloquist for 19 years, and when I go to classes, especially with youth, I think about healthy friend dolls. I want to help kids create their own special ventriloquist dolls that embody different characteristics of healthy relationships that they want to see in the people around them,” Smith explains.
