Tyler resident, Miss Texas Mallory Fuller reaches top 10 in Miss America contest

Published 2:16 pm Wednesday, December 22, 2021

After years of admiration and dedication to pageantry, Tyler resident and reigning Miss Texas Mallory Fuller placed in the top 10 at the 2022 Miss America competition and was recognized for her mental health awareness ideas.

Fuller, who was named Miss Texas in June, competed among 50 other women vying for the Miss America title on Dec. 16 in Connecticut. Miss Alaska Emma Broyles was crowned the winner, while Fuller represented Texas in the contest’s top 10.

She called the achievement “a dream” on her Instagram account a day after the pageant. Broyles later called Fuller “incredible” and the “definition of grace.”

“I know you will do incredible things and inspire others all around the world,” Broyles commented.

In addition to reaching the milestone, Fuller was named the social impact pitch winner and awarded a $1,000 scholarship from IT Help, Inc. The pitch, which is a part of the competition, was named “Mallory’s Mission: Suicide Prevention.”

Her pitch seeks to normalize conversations around suicide and provide education and prevention strategies, according to the Miss America website.

The subjects of mental health and suicide prevention are close to Fuller’s heart, driving her to write a book, “Henry’s Happy Heart,” that tells the story of two friends who deal with emotions, mental health and physical hurdles.

According to the book’s summary, some of the themes for kids are goal-setting, talking to trusted adults about feelings and emotions and building good friendships. For every five copies sold, one book is donated to an elementary school library.

The messages in the book came to Fuller because she lost a childhood friend to suicide at an early age, was bullied and had body image issues.

“For me, my mission is suicide prevention, but I like to focus on mental health as a whole. I think my experiences, being bullied for being 5-foot-11 in the sixth grade, have definitely shaped me. I feel like I can relate to those girls in junior high that feel like they don’t belong,” Fuller said in July about her mission after the Miss Texas win. “I remember when I was younger, all I wanted to do was shrink when I walked down the hallway, and I couldn’t do that because I was so much taller than all the girls, all the boys, and most of the teachers as well.”

Fuller said pageants and getting out of her comfort zone helped her love and accept that she was taller than others.

Following her Miss Texas win in the summer, Fuller said she would take a one-year break from pursuing her master’s degree at Baylor University. She aspires to become a speech-language pathologist, and she wants to work with adults who have suffered from strokes or other brain trauma.

According to the pageant website, Fuller has earned $30,000 in Miss America scholarships.

Her pageant wins began when she was named Miss Colleyville in October 2019 with the intention to compete in 2020’s Miss Texas, which because of COVID-19 was delayed to this year. She competed for four years before reaching Miss Colleyville.

Fuller started in the Miss Texas organization 15 years ago when her older sister Morgan was a candidate in the teen portion of the competition. She was a Lone Star Princess for her sister and for two girls who later won Miss Texas in 2006 and 2007.

Her other sister Madison also won Miss Texas in 2018. The last Miss Texas to become Miss America was Shirley Cothran, who represented the state for 1974 and served Miss America in 1975.

Raquel Torres contributed to this report.