The gorgeous Demi Leigh Nel Peters was crowned Miss Universe one month ago but the road to the 2018 Miss Universe Pageant has begun!

Miss USA class of 2018 is complete! 51 contestants will compete for the crown. 

Miss USA 2018 will be the 67th Miss USA pageant. Kára McCullough of District of Columbia will crown her successor at the end of the event. The winner will represent the United States at the Miss Universe 2018 pageant.

This year we will see many familiar faces returning to compete for Miss USA 2018. With a record number of former Miss Teen USA competitors vying for the Miss USA crown in 2014, the number has reached 10 girls this year. To many pageant followers, the former Teen titleholders are the said “frontrunners” competing at the greatest pageant in America. This can be very questionable to some people, including myself.

The United States may be known for its higher education; compared to many other countries. However women are just 13 percent of mechanical engineering undergraduate students. 

When these disparities persist, everyone suffers. Women miss out on opportunities in growing and highly paid occupations that require science and engineering skills. So, how can we get more women into engineering fields, and help them stay for their whole careers? We need their insight and creativity to help solve the problems facing our world.

The gorgeous Kristen Leyva, who'll be competing for the crown of Miss New Mexico USA 2018, created her own mentorship program called #JustONE where she utilizes her position as engineer to travel to elementary and middle schools all over her state to inspire and encourage young kids, especially girls to peruse opportunities and careers in engineering.

If she wins the crown Kristen will have the opportunity to represent her state at Miss USA 2018. Did you know ? New Mexico has had moderate success at Miss USA, with many placements in the 1960s to the '80s and one Miss USA, Mai Shanley in 1984.

I had the opportunity to interview Kristen on her preparation for the upcoming pageant. Lets know a little more about this beautiful and inspiring woman through this interview!

She competed in the first ever Galaxy UK Pageant around 10 years ago. The gorgeous Laura Entwistle won the prestigious title of Ms Galaxy Ireland a few months ago and the first thing that went through her mind when she won the crown was “Laura, you did it, you actually did it, you’re finally a Galaxy queen” - "I’ve always been someone who was terrified of failure, and even worse, people seeing me fail, because of this I struggled to open up and let people see the real me" - she explained.

"The moment that my name was called was amazing to me because it meant that all of my hard work, self-building and previous disappointments/lessons learned had paid off, I finally felt like I deserved this title, which is a feeling that’s difficult to describe, I felt empowered."

Laura will have the opportunity to represent Ireland in the Ms Galaxy Contest later this year. Lets know a little more about her preparation through this interview!

Logan Lester was crowned Miss Texas USA 2018 on Janury 6, 2018 in Houston at Hilton Houston Post Oak Hotel. She succeeds Nancy Gonzalez as the new Miss Texas USA and will have the opportunity to represent her state at Miss USA 2018 later this year. 

Miss USA 2018 will be the 67th Miss USA pageant. Kára McCullough of District of Columbia will crown her successor at the end of the event. The winner will represent the United States at the Miss Universe 2018 contest.