Bloom Grad Named Miss Windy City 2013

Bloom High School graduate Ariel Fuller is making waves on the pageant circuit and climbing the ranks towards the Miss America Pageant, following being named Miss Windy City 2013. Fuller will now go on to compete in the Miss Illinois Pageant in June.

After graduating from Bloom, Fuller attended the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, where she earned a bachelor's degree in communications with a minor in philosophy. While in college, she took to the stage for her first pageant. Following the pageant, she moved behind the scenes, working to organize and coordinate the same pageant for the next several years.

“I did a pageant my sophomore year and then I was a pageant coordinator for the school and that area of Illinois,” she said.

With an age limit of 24 for the Miss America Pageant system, Fuller, 23, decided she wanted to take a shot at Miss Windy City, a precursor to Miss America.

“This was my last year to do it, I decided that if I didn't do it I was pretty much out of it,” she said. “I just said, 'Let me just jump on in and see what happens.'”

During her previous pageant experiences, Fuller said she always took runner-up, so the win was a bit of a shock.

“This one actually caught me completely offguard,” she said. “I stepped off stage and just thought, 'What did I just do?'”

With her win, Fuller will now go on to compete in June in the Miss Illinois Pageant. Should she win, she will move on to the Miss America Pageant later this year.

To follow Ariel's pageant journey, 'like' her Facebook page.