If you haven’t heard, Pennsylvania has a new queen in its midst. Elizabeth Cardillo, better known now as Miss Pennsylvania USA, was crowned this past December and will be representing our great state well in the quickly approaching Miss USA pageant. Cardillo is Philly PR Girl’s #WomanCrushWednesday this week!
Cardillo was born and raised in Hampton, PA, a suburb just outside of Pittsburgh. She later moved out to Los Angeles to pursue a degree in fashion merchandising from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM). Despite living as a California girl for a short time as well as continuing to compete in pageants, Cardillo never forgot her roots and soon returned to her home state to take the crown.
Though her path to success may seem like a dream come true, Cardillo never pictured herself as a “pageant girl.” It wasn’t until she stumbled upon a Miss USA pageant on television that she became interested. Floored by how intelligent, beautiful and eloquent these women were, Cardillo decided to audition, with the main goal originally being to make friends. After three years of competing, networking and making lasting friendships, Cardillo realized that while she loved participating in pageants, it was only right to return to Pennsylvania to represent her roots.
That move, clearly, paid off. For the next year, Cardillo’s new full time job will be to represent the state of Pennsylvania and she’s off to a fabulous start. One of her first acts was to visit her alma mater, Hampton High School, to offer words of encouragement and support the school that she says gave her an “amazing education.” Within the next year she also hopes to shed light on an issue extremely close to her: adoption.
Cardillo was put up for adoption herself as a baby by a teenage mother who simply wasn’t ready. However, Cardillo has a positive perspective saying she “hit the jackpot when it came to [her] parents and [her] family” who have been extremely loving and supportive every step of the way. With this new platform she hopes to raise awareness on the over 100,000 children waiting to be adopted in the United States alone, all while spreading hope and encouragement to those kids to never give up on their dreams. After all, Cardillo’s dreams were able to come true for her and we can’t wait to root for her during this spring’s Miss USA pageant!
To learn more about Miss Pennsylvania USA follow her on Twitter, Facebook, or visit www.misspennsylvaniausa.com.
