Neither the jewel-encrusted trim of her white dress nor the kaleidoscope of hues bouncing off her diamond earrings could mask the fear in Miss Gainesville Paris Richardson’s eyes.
With two participants remaining in the 2025 Miss Florida competition, Richardson and Miss Jacksonville Anjelica Jones stood center stage among dozens of contestants, clutching each other’s hands as they awaited the final results.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we are about to crown our Miss Florida,” the emcee said.
For nearly 30 seconds, she didn’t speak. The suspense intensified with each tremble of Richardson’s arms as she attempted to remain still.
“Our new Miss Florida 2025,” the emcee said with a long pause. “Winning a $20,000 scholarship is Paris Richardson.”
Tears welled in Richardson’s eyes as she embraced Miss Jacksonville. She was the second Black woman to win Miss Florida and the first Miss Gainesville to win the Miss Florida title since Marcia Crane won in 1952.
“I wasn’t the little girl who looked at Miss America and said, ‘I want to be on that stage one day,’” Richardson said. “I definitely wanted to compete in pageants, but that was far beyond anything I'd ever imagined.”
Miss Florida, who spent four years as a University of Florida cheerleader and graduated with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in the spring, now looks toward Miss America 2026.
The competition, which begins Sept. 3, will span four days and showcase 51 contestants in five segments. The judges will score participants based on performances in private interviews, health and fitness, on-stage questions, talent and evening gown.
Richardson will spend the next five weeks working with sponsors, sharpening her dance skills and speaking to as many interviewers as possible. Much of her preparation will be akin to what she did heading into the Miss Florida competition, but she’s ramped up her intensity as the final competition looms.
“I have found peace in preparation these past few years and understanding that this is going to be hard,” Miss Florida said July 9. “It's going to be a hard seven weeks, but I have so much fun in those seven weeks enjoying what’s going to happen.”
For Richardson, the most difficult challenge is fine-tuning her dance moves and moving her cheerleading skills to a different arena.
She’s spent countless hours relearning acrobatics and tumbling to suit the competition, which she said is difficult due to the opposing nature of dance and cheer.
“That transition was rough,” Richardson said. “[In] cheer, we don't really dance. Our dances are motions. Dancers are completely different. They actually feel and dance.”
Richardson attends classes at Radar Dance Complex in Ocala to practice. On top of the talent portion, the last two weeks have been dedicated to working with sponsors throughout north central Florida as Richardson strengthens her resume.
She’s currently working with youth groups throughout Jacksonville to boost her health equity initiatives, a mission she began pursuing in high school.
At Jean Ribault High School, Richardson started the Ribault Get RAW program, which helped promote her school’s health center for students who were uninsured or had inadequate healthcare access. It later expanded into a statewide initiative with CROWN of Health.
In April, Richardson spread her health equity message to a younger audience with the release of her children’s book, “The Not-So-Perfect Garden Project.” The book discusses themes of food insecurity and includes the daughters of Ribault cheer coaches Natasha Skipper and Latosha Nightingale.
“Out of all the girls that Paris has been around and all the coaches and all the different mentors she's had, for her to choose my daughter is such an honor,” Skipper said. “I just pray that my daughters, because I have three, that they look up to Paris and they are inspired to do half of what she's done.”
To practice the competition’s onstage and private interview sections, Richardson keeps up with the news to form her own opinions on relevant topics.
“I've been talking to people, just getting that exposure is one of the easiest ways,” Richardson said. “Having as many mock interviews as possible, practicing what it's like in that situation, instead of a one-on-one, because it's really different when you have five people staring at you.”
The past few months have been a nonstop grind for Richardson. In the spring, she traveled with the Florida Gators basketball team for a month during their national championship run. A few weeks later, she graduated. A few weeks after that, she won Miss Florida.
Before she entered pageantry in college, Richardson dedicated extensive time to working with sponsors and local community organizations to further her health equity initiative. Regardless of what happens during the Miss America competition, her mother, Rachelle Miller, said she’s proud of the work Richardson has put in over the last four years.
“We are elated for many reasons to see that her hard work has paid off,” Miller said. “She’s literally working from sunup to sundown every day.”
Richardson will have one chance to compete for the Miss America title. The preliminary round of the competition begins Sept. 3 at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in Orlando.
Contact Luke Adragna at ladragna@alligator.org. Follow him on X @lukeadrag.
Luke Adragna is working his fifth semester at The Alligator and returns as the Summer 2025 assistant sports editor. In his free time, he enjoys hanging out with his cat Pete and researching niche professional athletes (shoutout Jacquizz Rodgers).
