Meet Mrs. Pennsylvania Continental Worldwide, Emily Kenniston, of Sinking Spring. Or you may know her as the host of BCTV’s “Small Business Spotlight,” or as the school librarian at Sacred Heart School in West Reading, or as “The Ice Queen.” She wears many hats, after all.
BCL: What does vying for the title of Mrs. Pennsylvania Continental Worldwide consist of and why is it important to you? I was crowned Mrs. Pennsylvania Continental Worldwide in 2022, and I have been so blessed to be able to consistently use my title to work in my community over the past year. Ultimately, pageantry is important to me because it personally represents a personal decision to choose health instead of fear. I originally started my pageantry journey in 2019 when I was deeply in the throes of crippling postpartum depression and anxiety. I knew that I had to do something for my mental health to try and get stronger, and for me that looked like following through on a long-held dream (in my case, pageantry). I wanted my daughter to see me making choices that would demonstrate the importance of mental health when she was young, in hopes that it would inspire her to do the same as she grew up. As I continue my pageant journey, it is important to me beyond anything else that I demonstrate a life of kindness, strength, and a dedication to helping others, no matter what title I bear or crown I wear.
BCL: What is your platform and why did you choose it? My platform is “Supporting Small Business Owners of America,” which I do through creating free or drastically reduced cost advertising and written content for small business owners as both a model and as an author/blogger. I was deeply affected by how the pandemic affected small businesses. In many cases, many of them did not survive financially or were irrevocably altered. This was also why I created my original show, Small Business Spotlight on BCTV in February, 2021. Once a month, I invite a different small business owner onto my show to talk about themselves and their business. Once the studio posts the resulting YouTube link after the show airs, my show guests then have a free 20- to 30-minute ad for their business that they can use as they wish!
BCL: What do you believe is a common misconception when it comes to pageants? I believe the biggest misconception that surrounds pageantry is that it is a very shallow endeavor for competitors – that it is all about looking a certain way. While I don’t dispute that has been the experience of some women, I have personally found the opposite is true. The women I’ve been blessed to compete with over the years in different systems have been nothing but kind, intelligent and supportive – more focused on kindness and genuineness than on appearance. We truly are a sisterhood, and I’m thankful for them every day.
BCL: What is your pageant background? I first competed in the Pennsylvania International system as Mrs. Doylestown International 2020. I then competed again the next year and held the title of Mrs. Reading International 2021, and was Third Runner-Up to Mrs. Pennsylvania International 2021. Following that, I was crowned Mrs. Pennsylvania Continental Worldwide in 2022!
BCL: Tell us about your ties to Berks County! Berks County has been home for roughly half my life. My parents moved here my senior year of high school (which, since I was homeschooled, was much less traumatic than it sounds), and I am a proud graduate of Penn State Berks (incidentally, this is also where I met my husband). I’ve taught in various schools in Berks County, and have been very honored to make Berks County Community Television studios my “TV home” for my show. I also write freelance articles for Berks Weekly, and have submitted a couple short articles (for Empire Home Center) that were published in BCL!
BCL: What’s coming up on the pageant circuit for you? In August of this year, I travel with my family to Salt Lake City, UT, where I will compete against some truly stellar women for one of two titles: Mrs. Continental Worldwide and Mrs. USA Continental Worldwide. If I win, I plan on continuing my work to support small businesses as much as I possibly can. I have a dream of creating a program for local colleges (and eventually, nationally) that would pair graphic design and IT students with small business owners in their area. The college students would create functional, beautifully designed websites for small business owners as part of their academic portfolio, thereby both enriching their own resumes while still in college, and providing local small business owners (who may not be able to afford a professional website designer) with deeply discounted website creation services. One of the biggest complaints I heard from consumers regarding “shopping small” during the pandemic was “I would shop from [a small business] instead of Amazon…but the businesses don’t have functional websites (or even a website at all).” I hope to eliminate that challenge for small business owners, while also assisting college students in building their resumes and portfolios. Aside from that, my goal if I win my pageant is to continue trying to spread God’s love through kindness everywhere, and to advocate for both mental and maternal health wherever I am blessed enough to go.
Fun Fact:
- Emily is the school librarian at Sacred Heart School, West Reading, the lifestyle and managing editor of Grit & Goals magazine, a professionally represented and multi-published model specializing in bridal modeling, and a “professional princess” traveling the state since 2014 performing as “The Ice Queen” to bless kids from all over the state. And that’s just a few of the many hats she wears! The ones most important to her are as mom to Brielle Evangeline, 5, and wife to her husband of 15 years, Dillon.
