Miss Iowa 2022 Bailey Hodson uses her platform to advance anti-bullying initiative

When Bailey Hodson heard her name announced as Miss Iowa 2022 at the state pageant June 11, her hands began shaking and her mind went blank in disbelief. 

"I didn't even know what to do, where to go," Hodson said. "I didn’t have this ‘in the bag’ mentality. I didn’t think it was going to be me from day one, I was truly just there to have fun and be proud of the work I put in."

Hodson, 24, of Berwick, will go on to represent Iowa in the Miss America Pageant in Connecticut this December. 

The Grand View University alumna, who majored in English and secondary education, earned a total of $12,750 in scholarships and awards through the Miss Iowa Scholarship Program this year. That includes the Jessica Pray Patel Vocal Scholarship, awarded to the vocalist with the highest talent score — an award that surprised Hodson. 

"I always feared judgment, because I was never trained in vocal performance," Hodson said. "It was just something I did in the shower or car. I loved singing, but I was scared to do it in front of people. But if I'm going to speak on overcoming your fears and being your best self through my initiative, I needed to fight my own fear of singing in front of people."

That's exactly what she did, winning over the judges with a rendition of "A Million Dreams" from the musical "The Greatest Showman." 

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This was Hodson's fourth year competing in the Miss Iowa pageant. She was first runner-up in 2019, which was "probably one of the coolest experiences besides winning," according to Hodson. 

"When they called my name and having that dream come to fruition...it was a dream come true," Hodson said. "I was excited and I couldn’t believe it. I knew that I had come close before, but the idea of actually winning seemed like it might never happen, so when it did, it was crazy."

The competition included categories for talent, an on-stage question, social-impact pitch and evening wear. The social impact pitch "helps the judges envision how the candidate will bring her chosen platform to a wider scale and audience," according to the Miss Iowa website. 

"I think the pitch is my favorite part, because that’s when I got to talk about my social impact initiative and everything I’ve already done with it and what I want to do for Iowa," Hodson said.

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Her social impact initiative is "The ABCs: The Anti-Bullying Campaign," an issue Hodson became passionate about after she was bullied in high school. She has authored two children's books on bullying prevention. 

"I want to implement a curriculum that helps combat the imbalance of power that comes with bullying in the classroom," Hodson said. "As an educator myself, I knew and I've been trained on things to do for students, but I realized my colleagues had no idea what to do when bullying occurred. I want to help our students feel safer in classrooms and halls and schools in general."

Hodson worked as a middle school literacy teacher in Kansas City, Missouri, after graduation, before returning to Iowa to work as a seventh grade literacy teacher in the Urbandale Community School District for the past two years. 

She resigned from her Urbandale position — a bittersweet feeling for a passionate educator like Hodson — and will spend the next year traveling around the state, working on her anti-bullying initiative. She hopes to implement anti-bullying curriculum and strategies in schools across the state. 

"As I became an educator, I saw a higher need, and I saw my students experiencing what I experienced. I saw that I needed to step in as an educator to make sure we’re supporting our students," Hodson said. "Besides just education, it’s trying to really stress this idea to people that if we’re just accepting and kind and caring to people, we can reduce the bullying that occurs in general."

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An Iowa contestant has never won the national Miss America pageant, but winning is far from Hodson's mind — she is "just so excited to be there."

"It truly is a great program that teaches you so many important skills that you don’t even think about," Hodson said. "The Miss America organization has evolved so much, trying to come away from this idea of a beauty pageant to strong independent women who have careers. I've learned so much about myself through this process and I’ve gained so many different skills that I never would’ve had the opportunity to learn without this organization." 

Grace Altenhofen is a news reporter for the Des Moines Register. She can be reached at galtenhofen@registermedia.com or on Twitter @gracealtenhofen.