Madison Gibbs has never been what she calls, a “pageant girl.” In fact, she’s only ever participated in four. As it turns out, she’s pretty good at it. In December, she was crowned Miss Black North Carolina USA after competing in the scholarship pageant at the Garner Performing Arts Center.

“I didn’t think I was going to win,” she said. “I don’t like to pump myself up in my head. I try to remain calm and focus on what I am doing. I don’t like to focus on what anyone else is doing.”

Gibbs, 21, participated in the scholarship pageant after being crowned Miss Black Piedmont USA. Prior to that title, she participated in the first Mister and Miss A&T pageant where she was the first runner up and her senior year of high school, she was crowned Miss Dudley.

“In high school, when I competed, I cried so much and said I never wanted to do another pageant in my life,” she said.

Gibbs is now poised to represent her home state in the Miss Black USA scholarship pageant in August.

“Whether I win or not, I think the next one is going to be my last one,” she said.

In addition to winning it all, she also placed first in the categories of evening and athletic wear as well as talent, an area she struggled with in previous competitions.

“For my first pageant, I did a spoken word piece and that is really hard to pull off. Then I did a liturgical dance set to Maya Angelou’s ‘And Still I Rise’,” Gibbs said. “This time I said, ‘I need to do something I know how to do and that I’m good at’.”

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