Though Bailey Anne Kennedy didn't win the Miss USA pageant in 2024, she still made history. On June 1, the 32-year-old became the first transgender woman to win Miss Maryland USA. She was also the state's first Asian American winner, along with being the first spouse of a military service member and the first contestant over the age of 28 to earn the state title. 2024 was the first year that women over age 28 were allowed to compete.
"For the longest time, it wasn't possible for someone like me to compete — let alone compete and win," Bailey told People in an exclusive interview. "It's not just a big deal for me. It's a big deal for many communities that I represent."
Ahead of the Miss USA pageant on Sunday, August 4, Bailey spoke to People about challenging misconceptions about military spouses, "stay-at-home" wives, immigrants, and the LGBTQIA+ community.
Bailey is originally from Cambodia and moved to the US with her family when she was 11 years old. She is married to a member of the Marine Corps, and on her website, her occupation is listed as "Director of Household Operations."
"My goal is to leave a positive impact behind so that I can make it easier for those with similar upbringings and clear up any misconceptions about 'stay-at-home' military wives, the LGBTQIA+ community and immigrants of a particular age," Bailey told People.
Reflecting on her state title win on Instagram, Bailey wrote that "I kept getting so emotional all day because I knew it was bigger than me. I knew that it only took 67 years for married women to compete freely. Let alone to have an immigrant who happened to be bullied all of life for her accent and her different ways of doing things."
When she first moved to the US, she couldn't speak, read, or write English. On her website, she wrote that overcoming this language barrier taught her a lot about persistence. She also wants people to recognize that "immigrants can dive into the unknown and come out successful in the end," per People.
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After being crowned Miss Maryland, Bailey dealt with some backlash and transphobic hate. Responding to this, she took to Instagram to write about the importance of taking up space and using her platform to inspire others and show them that they're not alone.
"Not everyone has to agree with the spaces that you occupy, and it doesn’t mean that you aren’t worthy of these opportunities," she wrote on Instagram on June 4. "The work that I will do for the remainder of my life is to make sure that children who feel like me will never have to worry about the consequences of being who they are by simply being myself and being a positive contribution to society."
After the Miss USA pageant on August 4, she reiterated the message: "Be what you didn’t have growing up. Take up all the space."
As an older Miss USA contestant and state title holder, she also wants to remind people that they're never too old to achieve their goals. "You can start late [in life], look different, be uncertain and still somehow succeed," she told People. "You're never too old or too late to restart and recompose and find your next calling."
Because of this core belief, her motto is "beauty without an expiration date."
When she married an active duty member of the US Marine Corps, she understood that her priorities would have to shift, she wrote on her website.
"The moment that I got married to an active duty Marine officer I knew that my life would be forever changed. I accepted the fact that his commitment to our country would always come first and any career aspirations of mine would be second," she wrote on her website.
However, her perspective changed when Miss USA changed its rules, allowing married women and women over 28 to compete. To her, it was "a sign" that the organization was "ready to crown an older, military spouse like myself."
She hopes that through her platform, she can "encourage military spouses every where to break the traditional mold and step out of the box that we oftentimes put ourselves in."
