In 2017, Mikayla Holmgren made history by becoming the first woman with Down syndrome to compete in a Miss USA state pageant. This year, Mikayla is set to do it again. The 2021 Miss Marine on St. Croix, now 26, will compete for a third time in the 2021 Miss Minnesota USA pageant in Burnsville on July 31 and Aug. 1. However, she said having a disability is secondary to all the work she does in pageants, including dance, modeling and being an advocate for the special needs community.
Holmgren’s pageant career started in 2015, when a connection from the Minnesota Special Olympics told Sandi Holmgren, Mikayla’s mother, that she should sign Mikayla up for the Minnesota Miss Amazing pageant, a competition for women with special needs.
Sandi said she signed Mikayla up for a few weeks prior, just for fun, without any knowledge of the pageant world or how Mikayla’s career would take off. She didn’t know the winner of the pageant would go to Los Angeles to compete in Miss Amazing Nationals until the directors announced it during the pageant.
“I remember thinking, ‘Oh, I hope she doesn’t win,’” Sandi said.
However, despite Sandi’s reservations about the pageant world that they stumbled into, Mikayla won the Junior Miss Division in her first Miss Amazing pageant and qualified for nationals to compete in Los Angeles. She continued…
