The Miss Naturally Crowned competition is the perfect marriage between the natural hair movement and beauty pageants. The event was started in December 2013 by best friends, entrepreneurs and naturalistas Jessica E. Boyd and Maureen A. Ochola.

In Columbia, South Carolina, two girlbosses had the idea to start a different kind of pageant—one focused on women with natural, textured hair. The pageant began as a fundraising venture for a natural hair beauty boutique the two plan to launch, but it slowly turned into much, much more.

On Saturday, 25-year-old Monae Bispham was named Miss Naturally Crowned Carolina 2016. A Brooklyn native, Bispham has been wearing her hair natural her entire life despite facing a fair share of backlash from colleagues and even family. 

Rather than conforming to someone else's ideals, she's learned to embrace the natural state of her hair while holding down a successful career as an admissions counselor at Claflin University in South Carolina.