Miss Kentucky Elle Smith was crowned Miss USA 2021 at Monday night’s pageant. The 23-year-old model, journalist, and beauty pageant won the competition at the River Spirit Casino Resort in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Smith will be representing the United States in the Miss Universe pageant on December 12 in Eilat, Israel. The University of Kentucky graduate had previously been crowned Miss Kentucky USA 2021. She is the second woman from Kentucky to win Miss USA after Tara Conner was crowned Miss USA in 2006.
Born in Springfield, Ohio, Smith graduated with a degree in broadcast journalism and a minor in political science in 2020. She became an on-air reporter with WHAS-TV in Louisville, Kentucky, after completing her degree.
In the final question portion of Miss USA, Smith was asked, “Sustainability is becoming more and more important in professional landscapes. How can we encourage business to be more environmentally conscious?” to which she responded:
“I think we’ve got to look at it from a macro level and also a micro level. So at the macro level, companies need to switch to green energy, I think that’s something we can all agree on. On the micro level, we all know how to reduce, reuse, and recycle, and those are things that we can implement in our daily lives.”
The University of Kentucky congratulated Smith on social media.
