Rachel Barcellona is the first person with autism to compete in the Miss Florida contest, which will celebrate its 2019 edition in late June, and says she is more than ready to "inspire people" and put on the crown.
In an interview with the WFLA television channel in Tampa, her city, Barcellona, 22, a pre-university student and activist in favor of the inclusion of autistic people, reported Friday that she is not a novice in beauty contests.
In her credit she has several titles such as Miss Florida International, Miss Southeast International and Miss Rio Manatee.
Since she was 5 years old, this young woman, who is also a model and opera singer, has participated in different beauty competitions, except for a period when she felt "depression and anxiety".
He returned to compete when he was 13 years old, because it helped him "to make friends and gain confidence," said Barcellona, who stands out for her long blonde hair and wide and perfect smile.
At three years the doctors told their parents that he had a certain degree of autism and his mother, who is a nurse, has been worried since then that the negative things associated with this condition did not happen to her.
"They told me that I was never going to graduate and that I would not have friends," says Barcellona, who loves her mother, among many other things, for having insisted on leaving out of her life all that negativism and having helped her to be the one is today.
The young woman, who as a lyric singer has acted in theaters such as Madison Square Gardens in New York and played the national anthem of the United States in public, warns the judges of Miss Florida that she is not affected by autism negatively and that she feels very able to represent Florida in Miss United States.
"Beauty contests are also a spectrum (like the autistic one). You have to find the one that is appropriate for each one and go for the title because it can really make a young woman more confident and empowered to be a wonderful woman, "says Barcellona, a student at the University of South Florida.
The contest to choose the next Miss Florida will begin on June 25 in Lakeland (center of the state).
As an activist, Barcellona took part in an event organized at the United Nations headquarters to mark the World Day of Autism Awareness, on April 2.