Norfolk County’s Aalanna Rusnak has been crowned Miss Teenage Canada.
Rusnak, 17, who hails from the Courtland area, was named the winner on Saturday night.
She won her first ever pageant, Miss Teenage Ontario Southwest in June, setting the stage for the national competition.
Rusnak, a student at Glendale High School in Tillsonburg, has been spreading a message of self-love. She has also raised funds for the Make A Wish Foundation.
In the final weeks of school, Rusnak visited Walsh, Courtland, Port Dover and two schools in Brantford.
“I’ve been speaking at elementary schools about my platform, which started off as positive body image and self-love. Then I expanded it to bullying – how social media can be damaging – and mental health issues,” she said in an earlier interview.
Her first idea was to focus on women’s empowerment, but she wanted to include everyone.
“Self-love is self-empowerment, self-confidence which can reflect onto others.”
“I spoke to Grades 3-8 and I thought all of these things, including mental health issues, can impact everyone, all ages – elementary school students, high school students, teachers, parents – everyone can be affected by that. So I thought it would be a great topic to speak about.”
Rusnak said her 45-minute platform was an experience she will never forget and she hopes to continue sharing it in the next school year if more schools are open to hearing it.
“I showed two 2-3 minute clips on social media on bullying, and I also created a video with some students at Glendale, both male and female, Grades 9-12, just trying to prove that everybody does struggle with that and it’s OK to reach out and get the help you need.”
The Miss Teenage Canada competition is run by Pageant Group Canada.
“Pageant Group Canada, they like to make it very clear they are not looking just for beauty, they are looking for inner beauty as well. ‘What does beautiful mean to you?’ That was actually a question I had to answer prior to the pageant. When I put some thought into it, I realized it’s not just what’s on the outside, it’s the inner beauty that shines from within to others,” she said after winning the Ontario title.
with files from Chris Abbott