Thank you to our generous #MissConnecticut sponsors for providing products for our candidate gift bags! One of the best parts of being a #MissConnecticut candidate is working with brands that align with my values and the values of the Miss Connecticut Scholarship Organization. These brands are no joke about supporting our empowerment and advocacy initiatives. Please give them your support as they support us!
Sponsors mentioned ::
@colorwowhair
@beautigasm
@avrilfras
@4elementsdpc
@glotiquect
Thank you all for your incredible support of our 2022 class of candidates ✨
#MissGreaterWaterbury #MissConnecticut #MissCT #MissAmerica #MAO #MissAmerica100 #Sponsor #Sponsors #Brand #Scholar #LGBT #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #ShopSmall #SupportSmallBusiness #CT #Connecticut #Waterbury #Mohegan #MoheganSun
@missconnecticutscholarshiporg @missamerica @mohegansun
Tomorrow, I leave for the #MissConnecticut competition at Mohegan Sun. Today is a day for reflection and gratitude. Please, share a cup of coffee with me as I talk through some of the emotions that I’m feeling as I mark 10 years since my first time competing as a teen in the Miss Connecticut Scholarship Organization.
I’ll let this video speak for itself, but I could not be more grateful for your support and for the ability and privilege to make a dream that my younger self didn’t dare to dream come to fruition. I’m honored to represent the LGBTQ+ community and all those who have felt historically marginalized as my full, authentic self.
I’ll see you tomorrow, my friends 💖🦋
On Tuesday evening, our #MissConnecticut candidates were invited to a webinar hosted by The National Alliance on Mental Illness (@namiconnecticut) to discuss the importance of prioritizing mental health. As someone who publicly talks about living loudly with mental illness, I found this webinar to be both critical and necessary during this unique time in our lives as we experience both the pressure, anxiety, and excitement that comes with competing in a state competition.
After the webinar, I recorded this TikTok as a reminder to all those struggling with mental illness or dealing with a tough time that you are deserving of grace and wired for hope.
As we head into the weekend, I wanted to remind you that my DMs are always open and you are always welcome to reach out to me to talk.
I love you, I’m so glad you’re still here. Stick around 🦋
#MissGreaterWaterbury #MissCT #MissConnecticut #MissAmerica #MAO #MissAmerica100 #LGBT #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #MentalHealth #SuicidePrevention #BeHereTomorrow #LeahJuliett
If you’ve been victimized by sexual or intimate partner violence, this passage from my book may resonate with you.
In less than two short weeks, I’ll be reciting an original, unreleased poem on stage at #MissConnecticut. I wrote this poem exactly for this moment in time — it’s what I think everyone needs to hear right now.
I’m proud of my writing, how far I’ve come, and that I achieved my dream of having a book in bookstores around the world by the time I turned 25.
Being a poet is a unique trait that I’ll bring to the job of #MissConnecticut. I use my words to help make sticky subjects emotionally resonate and become accessible for everyone. I’ve been fortunate to reach thousands of people on Tik Tok and through my book, and today I was honored to make a $500 donation to the Miss Connecticut Scholarship Organization via Spotfund of the proceeds from my book.
Poetry is everything to me; it’s my way to communicate my feelings to the world. I can’t wait to perform for you onstage at #MissConnecticut so, so soon.
Until then; clear eyes, full hearts 🦋
#MissGreaterWaterbury #MissCT #MissConnecticut #MissAmerica #MAO #MissAmerica100 #Scholar #Poet #Poem #Poetry #SpokenWord #SlamPoetry #SlamPoet #LGBT #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #LeahJuliett
Let’s do this, Connecticut ⚡️ I am so proud to be representing my favorite city as Miss Greater Waterbury exactly 10 years after being crowned Miss Greater Waterbury’s Outstanding Teen.
I’ve army-crawled through the last ten years, fighting to preserve my voice and to amplify the voices of others. Connecticut is my home — and the state that has held my hand through my darkest moments, and walked with me into the light.
I cannot wait to return to the Miss Connecticut stage this April to represent the LGBTQ+ community and folks who have experienced online harassment and sexual violence. This year, I’m continuing my activism to create a safer internet by advocating to #TakeBackTheNet and stomp out internet harassment.
You can learn more about me and my social impact through my website linked in my bio.
Thank you for following me on this journey and always reminding me that I can do hard things — I’m so, so glad you’re here. Let’s do this 👑
#MissGreaterWaterbury #MissConnecticut #MissCT #LeahJuliett #MissAmerica #MAO #TakeBackTheNet #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #LGBT #Connecticut #CT #Waterbury
This evening I was so, so proud to be the primary witness to testify for Senator Susan Rubio of California’s 22nd District in a public safety hearing on SB23, a bill to expand the statute of limitations for victims of revenge porn. March Against Revenge Porn is a Co-Sponsor of this bill. For those who may not know, statute of limitations refers to the maximum time in which legal proceedings may occur after an event has happened. In my own lived experience as a victim of revenge porn, by the time I had the courage, knowledge, and resources to speak out, my statute of limitations was up, and I was unable to seek legal justice against the man who’d exploited me. This legislation expands the statute of limitations for victims in California to ensure that all victims can have seek justice equally and accessibly. I am always proud of March Against Revenge Porn, but my work hits close to home today, as this bill is protecting victims from what I’ve personally lived through. Thank you Senator Rubio, her policy staff, and everyone who gave me the platform to testify today.
In celebration of Read Across America Day and building a coalition of diverse readers, join me in a reading of Let the Children March by Monica Clark-Robinson, illustrating the role of children during the Civil Rights Movement.
This #ValentinesDay, let’s normalize and celebrate relationships that aren’t amplified in traditional media: queer and trans, interracial, interabled, interfaith, and non-monogamous. Let’s fight for equal representation of all types of love in media. Queer love is valid — your love is valid 🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈
Remember — you can still be successful in your career while being in a romantic relationship. Miss America does not have to be a single person to be dedicated to her job or to have a full and broad year of service. The idea that women can only be accomplished in a career OR in a relationship and therefore must chose one or the other is outdated and inaccurate. This Valentine’s Day and every day, let’s celebrate our relationships and how they add to our identities and accomplishments — not take away from them.
Video: NBC Universal
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#MissGreaterRockville #MissCT #MissConnecticut #MissAmerica #MAO #LGBTQ #LGBT #MarchToMissCT
What is bravery if not marching forward, though all may be lost?
On August 12, 2016, at nineteen years old, I founded March Against Revenge Porn –– my first major organizing project. I spent the next few months organizing and planning the march entirely on my own –– contacting press, getting permits, speaking with agencies, and planning the route. It was an overwhelmingly healing task.
On April 1, 2017, I led our first march across the Brooklyn Bridge to City Hall Plaza in New York City. We were covered by national and international press outlets, including CNN, who filmed and recorded this video segment.
After appearing on CNN, March Against Revenge Porn began to gain even more traction, receiving messages from victims and survivors around the world who’d seen our segment and wanted to join the movement. Seemingly overnight, we became a global activism and social justice campaign, featured in remarkable places like foreign newspapers and magazines, podcasts, morning news shows, and even the Snapchat Explore Page.
Several months later, I was contacted by the office of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and was told the Mayor was passing legislation to criminalize revenge porn in New York City. I knew that our march had shifted the narrative around tech-based sexual abuse.
But we didn’t stop there. Over the next few years, March Against Revenge Porn hosted and organized marches in Pittsburgh (covered on MTV’s “True Life”), Orlando, and Boston. We were featured in a viral BuzzFeed video, a Seventeen Magazine video series, a TED Talk, and on nightly news programs nationwide and in Canada and the UK. We were global.
What started as a march across the Brooklyn Bridge has turned into an international movement fighting tech-based sexual abuse.
But we’re not stopping there…
Tune in tomorrow to hear the latest news a special announcement from March Against Revenge Porn.
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This week, I’ll be taking you inside the inner workings of my so
It started with a poem that was louder than a bomb.
The single most transformative moment in my life was when I opened my laptop and saw the man who’d exploited me online staring back at me. His mugshot, all over my Facebook feed, told me that he was on the run for sexual assault of a minor.
In that moment, I knew that silence no longer served me. I knew that I had to speak.
I started by writing a spoken-word poem, then an essay, about my experience with tech-based sexual abuse. I posted the article online and began to perform the poem at poetry slams, including the Brave New Voices International Slam Poetry Competition in Washington, DC.
Today I’m sharing with you the original version of that poem, which is now five years old. Many of you who have seen my TED Talk or have heard me perform this know that the poem is different now, some of the words have been changed and have grown with me, but I’m still in awe of my younger self, who wrote this while living through sexual trauma. In fact, my nude photos lived online for two more years after this poem was written.
My entrance into activism was accidental — I took a used poster board and wrote “End Revenge Porn” in big, bold letters. I marched to the White House and stood outside the gates, holding my sign and screaming my poem, for all those around me to hear. I did not think that this would start a movement — but the freedom I felt from using my voice and publicly telling my story galvanized me to keep fighting for change.
But I didn’t stop there. It was August of 2016 that I founded the organization that would continue the movement and lead to global change around revenge porn...
This week, I’ll be taking you inside the inner workings of my social impact initiative and nonprofit, March Against Revenge Porn. For the past 4.5 years, we’ve been fighting against the crime that, for me, started in the confines of Facebook messenger. For years, my voice was trapped there. I set it free. Thi
The most dangerous way to repeat history is to forget it. On this day nearly eight decades ago, the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp was liberated by the Red Army during the Vistula-Oder Offensive. Before the liberation, over six millions Jews, Roma and Sinti, Slavs, disabled persons, LGBTQ+ individuals, and others were murdered by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. The horrors of the mass genocide echo into the present, as active hate crimes against these marginalized groups still happen daily in America and worldwide. In order to ensure that #NeverAgainIsNow, we must reaffirm our commitment to international human rights, show up for those whose identities are oppressed, vigilantly combat hatred, racism, xenophobia, anti-semitism, homophobia, and transphobia in our communities, and protect the legacy of Holocaust history.
#LightInTheDarkness #NeverAgain
🎥 from the @holocaustmuseum
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#HolocaustMemorialMuseum #HolocaustEducation #HolocaustMemorialDay
You asked & I answered! Back in November, @missamerica posted a video featuring me talking about being a nonbinary titleholder in the Miss America Organization. As a result of the video, I received a lot of questions and comments about my gender identity and gender identity in general. In response, I’ve compiled my answers to the most relevant and critical questions into this video –– including general information about nonbinary and trans identities and personal information about MY gender identity. I wish this would be a catch-all for future questions asked about my gender identity, but I know that I can always expect more questions so long as I exist in public as my authentic self –– and I welcome that. So please, ask more questions! My DMs are always open. Thank you for your kindness and support. xo LJ
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#MissGreaterRockville #MissCT #MissConnecticut #MissAmerica #MAO #GenderIdentity #LGBTQ #Nonbinary #Gender #LeahJuliett #MarchToMissCT
