Kayla Kosmalski was 5 years old when she first stepped onto a pageant stage.
Since then, this young woman from Middletown, Delaware, has never stopped trying. In 2021, she didn’t make the finals in the state competition. Even so, she came back. On April 28, 2024, at 17 years old and in her senior year at Middletown High School, she heard her name: she was the new Miss Delaware Teen USA and the first woman with Down syndrome to win a state title in this pageant in the United States.
Her life goes far beyond the crown. She is a cheerleader, swims on the varsity team, participates in school theater, is a member of the National Honor Society, and maintains a 3.7 GPA. Together with her parents, she championed “Kayla’s Act”, a law that allows people with disabilities to save up to 14.000 dollars a year. In August, she traveled to Hollywood to compete in Miss Teen USA and won the Miss Congeniality award at the national pageant.
“I want to show the world that people with Down syndrome can do anything”, she said.
