Win or lose, Miss Maryland Bailey Anne Kennedy made her mark on the Miss USA pageant this year.

The 31-year-old Montgomery County resident did not place in the top 20 in this year’s pageant, but she was the state’s first trans woman titleholder. She was also the Maryland’s first Asian American winner and oldest contestant to represent the state.

The Cambodian American was also part of what was arguably one of the pageant’s most diverse group of contestants in the pageant’s history.

Miss Connecticut 2024, Shavana Clarke, was the first openly lesbian Miss USA state titleholder. The first-generation Jamaican American is an activist for LGBTQIA+ rights and mental health.

This year’s winner, Miss Michigan, Alma Cooper, is the daughter of a migrant worker, an Afro-Latina and an officer of the United States Army. Kennedy has said she wants to use her platform to advocate for women and veterans.

Victory Ram, CEO of Be Victorious Prep, a Baltimore-based pageant coaching company, said she was impressed with the diversity “of all kinds on the stage this year.”

“It shows that pageantry is not limited to age, height, race, skin tone, ability,” she said. “It was a great representation of the modern, accomplished woman — we can have any skin tone. We can have any background. We can be of any height.”

Kennedy, who could not be reached for comment, thanked her support team — from her pageant coach to the designer of her evening gown — in an Instagram post following the pageant.

In another Instagram post, she wrote: “Be what you didn’t have growing up. Take up all the space.”

The local pageant community expressed support for Kennedy — while also explaining how difficult it is to win pageants.

“I’m proud that Bailey Anne worked hard to represent our state on a national level,” said Ram, a national titleholder in her own right who has coached contestants to more than 400 titles. She also is the past organizer of the Miss Baltimore and Miss Annapolis pageants, which are preliminaries for the Miss America pageant system.

“Even qualifying for that level of competition takes hard work and dedication,” she said.

Marina Cooper has the distinction of being the first woman to be Miss Maryland in both the Miss USA and Miss America pageants.

“It takes an incredible amount of focus and discipline to get to this point. I hope she’s proud of herself, but most importantly of the trail she has blazed for everyone who will come after her,” Cooper said.

Cooper described the pageant experience as a once in a lifetime opportunity.

“As a judge, I always look for the candidate who clearly understands the high stakes of getting just one shot at something and has both the enthusiasm and the drive to get the most out of the experience,” Cooper said.