(In one of my favorite quotes ever, the incredibly perceptive Chris Cornell, one of the most astute students of the human condition you’ll ever meet, famously said great lead singers don’t come from the cool kids, they come from outcasts.
Dannielle Halley is further proof that can be true in multiple walks of life. The magnetic Halley showcases her star power and charisma not in a musical setting, but as a literal beauty queen. Halley, who has been competing in pageants since she was 17, recently won the title at Swimsuit USA and finished in the top 10 at Miss Nevada.
Halley is stunningly beautiful, but a graduate with an engineering degree from the University of Connecticut, she is so much more. As such, she is a perfect person to explain the mysterious world of pageants. Like most people in 2025, that world is an enigma to me, so when the opportunity arose for Halley to pen a first-person account of her life in that scene, it was far too interesting to pass up.
The tale she tells is a fascinating one of being a shy, quiet kid who blossomed in that world, of camaraderie, and more. – Steve Baltin)
I grew up in Plainfield, a small town in Connecticut. We moved there when I was probably about four and one thing about small towns is everyone knows each other, or families are raised there typically for generations. So, we were these weird people from Vegas that no one knew, so I was definitely not popular. I was also really good in school. So, that automatically left me out of the cool kids club.
I was pretty shy. I actually graduated high school early had the worst case of senioritis because people knew just like how badly I wanted to get out of that town and that culture because I was definitely not very popular. I was very quiet and much more reserved.
My mom put me in modeling when I was about 16 or 17, right when I got my braces off, to loosen me up a little bit because she was like, “You were so shy I just had to show you that there’s more to life outside of Plainfield and that people do appreciate you and you are beautiful.”
Because at 17 you think all the things that everyone tells you are accurate and you’re also 17. Maybe 17-year-olds in Beverly Hills knew how, but when I was 17, I did not do my makeup or my hair correctly or dress right or do any of those things. Especially coming out of a small working-class town so I definitely was a weird outcast.
It’s funny because my mom still lives in my hometown and she runs into some of the people I went to school with. They ask about me and sometimes I get messages and people are always so nice and encouraging. I wish I got these messages 15 years ago, 10 years ago or however long it was.
But back to the pageants, I went to this informational when I was modeling back in New England. My modeling agency sent me to either Connecticut USA or Rhode Island USA, so I went there.
It was a pretty hefty entrance, and I was 17 or 18 and broke, so I declined to try. But a few years ago, the California USA people reached out to me on Instagram to say I might be a good fit. They were recruiting girls that might be interested.
I was already volunteering and had a platform. Then I was also modeling and acting a lot on the side. So, I thought it made sense. Then I ended up really liking it.
I was recruited into it. I think they’re always trying to get new girls. Same thing with this prelim. They reached out to me on Instagram. They had seen that I had done other pageants. This prelim was completely free to enter; you didn’t have to pay an entry fee. You just had to get approved by the organization.
I’ve done, I think, four or five pageants. And this is the first one I’ve won. So that’s exciting.
This pageant specifically, Swimsuit USA, is a little misleading because people think it’s just for swimwear, but in this competition, at the prelim, we did a swim walk. We also answered a question in front of the crowd, and we were in cocktail dresses mingling with different judges.
Then at the finals, they also have an onstage swim evening gown and top five question. Then there’s also going to be panel interviews and mingling with the judges again. My question was something along the lines of, “What were some of the challenges or what was it like getting a degree in engineering?”
For me, that’s a really great talking point because a lot of my platform is wrapped around how I almost didn’t graduate from school. I got really sick my senior year of college with this autoimmune disorder, and I was really struggling, not just physically for several years but mentally. During that time, I got to visit with a therapy animal and now I volunteer with my therapy dog.
It was the perfect question for me. I got to talk about how we’ve done over a hundred visits in the past four years to hospitals, nursing homes and schools and how I go and talk to others about the work we do and mental health awareness as a whole.
It has bolstered my confidence a lot, especially since I’ve started placing and doing better. It’s almost like a little badge of honor like I am Improving in my walk, in my presentation because I’m getting these “accolades,” nothing too crazy, but top 10 at Miss Nevada USA and then I won this prelim. It feels good because I’ve entered pageants before and not placed at all or gotten the best feedback.
So, it feels like people are seeing my improvement and liking what they see, which is always encouraging because you never really know in modeling and acting unless you’re working with a coach who’s going to be honest with you. But it’s like a physical manifestation of your work, it’s something you can really feel.
Then the other women are so supportive. Probably everyone thinks that the girls are mean and catty and want to see you lose. But you are going through this once in a lifetime experience with a certain group of women and you don’t know how to explain it to other people who haven’t gone through it.
So, it does create this bond. And you meet other girls who want to volunteer and who want to make a difference in their community That’s what pageants really are about, giving a platform to women to use their speaking skills and their presentation to support causes that they care about. At least that’s what I hope the majority are doing and I do believe the majority of women are using pageants for that.