Federal Way native Miss Washington seeking help to get to nationals

Published 5:05 pm Thursday, November 12, 2015

After her main sponsor pulled out last-minute, Miss Washington Tara Uson-Fee with National American Miss is looking for help to fund her trip to compete for the National Queen Title in Anaheim, California during Thanksgiving weekend.

“I feel extremely blessed and thankful to even have this opportunity to be competing as Miss Washington, and I really want to make my great state proud,” Uson-Fee wrote on her gofundme.com page. “My dream is to become 2015 National American Miss. With my title, I will have the opportunity to travel around the country and world to inspire girls to learn to be more self-confident and discover that they can accomplish anything when they believe in themselves.”

The young Filipino woman’s sponsor was a man who owned a glass company but had pulled out after some unexpected family struggles.

Now, Uson-Fee has to scrounge together $1,500 in time for her Nov. 21 departure.

So far, Uson-Fee has raised $240 on her gofundme.com account.

The money will go towards the cost of registration and is considered tax deductible.

At 20 years old, the Todd Beamer High School graduate was crowned the National American Miss’s Miss Washington in August.

Having been raised her whole life in Federal Way, Uson-Fee started competing in pageants five years ago.

For her first two years, she won first runner-up, or second place, and her third year she won Miss Washington teen in 2013.

That year, she was also honored with the city’s Overachiever Award and got to meet the mayor.

During high school, Uson-Fee was the cheer captain for three years (even though she’s been a competitive cheerleader for 11 years), participated in the AVID class and was in leadership her junior year.

Uson-Fee took a break from competing in pageants in 2014 but was back in full force this past summer.

She hired a personal trainer who helped her lose 20 pounds with a dieting plan, a “serious challenge,” she said.

And she met with an interview coach and formal gown walking coach each three times a week for three months before the pageant.

Uson-Fee’s platform was standing against addiction, a cause that’s impacted her life.

“Growing up, my mom raised me,” she said. “My dad was a part of my life but I grew up with him being an alcoholic and drug addict.”

Uson-Fee said her father’s addiction made seeing him sporadic and eventually she and her brother stopped seeing him.

“But when he did get sober, we got to spend time with him and got to know him more but last year he relapsed,” she said. “It helped build my character and be stronger with who I am.”

She said the National American Miss pageant represents girls who are confident with being who they are with big goals and dreams instead of simply focusing on beauty.

Uson-Fee eventually wants to compete for Miss America, in which case stopping addiction abuse would be her ultimate goal.

Until then, her focus is to win the National Queen Title, where she would be able to help educate teens about substance abuse by going to speak at different high schools about her personal story.

Uson-Fee currently works at Nordstom with hopes to make it into management and eventually to the corporate level.

To help Uson-Fee compete for the National Queen Title, donate at www.gofundme.com/TaraUsonNationals.