Lexington native Danielle Mullins won the Miss Earth Kentucky pageant at the end of 2022, then was crowned Miss Earth USA in January. On Thursday, she visited Meadow Lands Elementary School to speak with members of a club called Girls Group, speaking about ways to take care of the Earth as well as the importance of never giving up.
Mullins began her visit by reading “We Are the Gardners” by Joanna Gaines to the group. The story addresses the difficulties that come with starting a garden and the importance to push through to see the fruits of the labor. She equated this story to her own personal experience, both with gardening and pageantry.
Mullins said when she first began competing, she often didn’t win so she believed she wasn’t good enough.
“I decided it was time for me to quit. So around the time that I was 18, I said, ‘That’s it. I’m done with pageants. I don’t want to do this anymore. I’m not very good at it. I can’t win anything.’ So my mom and I quit,” Mullins said.
Shortly after, Mullins realized she missed the pageant world and the competition that came with it. So at 24, she went back.
She joined the Miss Earth circuit and aligned her passions for saving the Earth with pageantry. While she lost her first Miss Kentucky Earth contest, she told the girls that she continued to push through.
“By quitting, I never got to learn what I was capable of. Quitting is the quickest way to give up on something that you’re passionate about and a goal that you have,” Mullins said.
Following the book reading, Mullins discussed ways that the girls can have an impact on the Earth. As a real-time example, they picked up trash around the school and also made their own plant pots.
The Girls Group meets monthly and discusses different topics about girlhood, self-image, and working on being kind to others. Family Resource Coordinator Summer Davis she said hearing Mullins’ story is exactly what she hoped the girls would take away.
“That was the main thing I wanted them to get out of this was how to keep going and pursue your dreams and not giving up even when you’re put down,” she said. “Maybe you don’t win or maybe you feel like you failed, but you can get back up and do amazing things. She is a really good example of that.”
