Grand Prairie Woman Crowned Miss Plus World In Inaugural Pageant

GRAND PRAIRIE, TX — When Kristy Smith won the Miss Plus World pageant, she walked away with more than just a cash prize and bragging rights. A Grand Prairie native, Smith, who is passionate about working with people and giving back to her community, took home a new platform from which she could encourage women.

Since starting her pageant career in 2014, Smith has won Ms. Texas Plus, Ms. Lonestar Plus America and Ms. Alamo State Plus America. And on Friday, July 27, Smith took home the title of Miss Plus World.

"It was an awesome feeling," Smith told Patch. "And this was just a great accomplishment for me — to be the first and to be able to build this platform, build this pageant system — I'm just overjoyed."

Smith, a community servant dedicated to improving the lives of those around her, said she sees her victory as another tool she can use to empower women.

"I really love what I do," Smith said. "I'm a people person, and I really love inspiring other women to believe in themselves and know that they can accomplish anything they want in life."

As Miss Plus World, Smith represents a community of women who wear clothing starting at size 12, an important facet of her platform as the pageant's victor. Size, she said, should never hold a woman back from reaching her potential.

"I believe that we should appreciate our size... and love ourselves no matter the size that we are. "To be able to represent the plus 12 community, the 70 percent of the community that wear size 12, that is an honor."

When she isn't winning pageants, Smith donates her time to Girls Inc., a nonprofit that promotes female empowerment in school-aged girls in Fort Worth.

A mentor at The Young Women’s Leadership Academy in Fort Worth, Smith leads classes of young women. Her role in the classroom, she said, is teaching young girls to value themselves, discover their strengths and support one another.

"I just let them know that they, too, have a place," she said of the girls at the academy. "Looking at the Miss America system and the other systems that represent smaller women, plus women felt like we didn't have a place. I just let them know that 'you, too, have a place in this society.'"

Another important lesson that she hopes the girls at the academy take away from her teaching is that they can achieve anything they want.

Smith has put years of hard work into achieving her own goals in pageantry, including learning interview skills and studying current events, employing self-discipline that she learned from her mother, a role model Smith admires.

"I really look up to her because she went through so much throughout her life, but no matter what she's going through, she just continues to push and never lets any obstacles stop her from achieving any goals that she sets."

According to Miss Plus World's website, the pageant "is dedicated to promoting, elevating and celebrating the accomplishments and humanitarian services of women from across the nations."

Smith took it a step further, saying the pageant also promotes physical health and awareness in the plus community.

"We want to make sure that women are making sure that they're healthy," she said. "You can be plus, but we want you to be a healthy plus. We just promote a lot of women to do whatever they want to do and accomplish... That's what the Miss Plus World pageant is about."

Image via G6 Hospitality