Bessie A. Winn and I had the privilege of meeting as contestants in the Miss Black Georgia Pageant of 2006. We bonded over community service, choreography rehearsals, and the weekend sleepover. Winning both the Interview and the Fitness Apparel portions of the competition, Bessie was crowned Miss Black Georgia 2006, and she says her life changed tremendously from that day.
As a little girl, Bessie had several aspirations, wanting to be everything from a movie star to a prison warden. Attempting to find a happy medium between her passions and her talents, she chose to major in Political Science, hoping to become an attorney and an advocate for young people. Like many twenty-somethings, she found herself deciding against work in her field to pursue something more fulfilling. She wasn’t sure exactly what it was, but she knew that she had a strong passion for being a voice for young people and empowering women. Winning the pageant provided her a platform to take her once stagnant dreams to active, vivid realities.
Winn remembers, “Before doing the pageant I had dreams but they were stagnant dreams…So once I began to prepare for the pageant, and actually won, I said ‘Okay…so this is how is works…I see you God’. I then realized completely that dreams and goals don’t and won’t happen if you just thrown it in conversations here and there and just pray about it.” Her strong spirituality keeps her centered, and she is now aware that she can accomplish anything.
One of those coming accomplishments is a book for teens that will assist them in transitioning from high school to college. She plans to have it published in 2009.
Her pageant platform, passion, and purpose all came together in the work she for which she is now notable. The “See It, Stop It, and Prevent It” Teen Dating Conference is in its third year, and Bessie has inspired young women across Atlanta and the US with her message on preventing domestic violence. As a survivor, she has first hand experience with triumphing in spite of the abuse.
As a high school student, Winn became involved with a young man who verbally, physically, and sexually abused her. She stayed until her freshman year in college, when she realized that her life was worth much more. Winn notes, “Today I try to teach teens and parents the importance of making healthy choices and how the choices you make will affect you for the rest of your life.” From her early choices, she was able to learn the lesson that the only person standing in the way of her success was her.
Bessie shares that once she confronted herself on not being true, she was able to live freely. That’s exactly the advice she wishes to share with all women. That woman in the mirror isn’t always the woman inside. We are constantly compromising the way we look, the way we act, and our views to fit in. It can get so out of control that we don’t even realize who we’ve become. This winning woman says, “truth is from the inside out” and she’s worth watching.
Find out more about Bessie A. Winn at
http://www.bessieawinn.com/
and
http://bessieawinn.blogspot.com/
