“Here she comes, Miss… ” Persistence, driven by a cause that hits close to her own home.
Sullivan Central High School student and Bristol, Tenn. resident Kyla Staubus is passionate about pageantry. She holds multiple state pageant titles at present, including: Tennessee National Forestry Queen, America’s Natural Supreme Beauty for Tennessee (for the second year in a row) and Unicoi County Cinderella Teen. And, recently, she placed second in the Fairest of the Fair competition at the Appalachian Fair.
“It’s a lot of work training,” Kyla admitted.
However, as dedicated as she is, the 17-year-old pageant queen holds even greater fervor for her campaign to raise awareness about epilepsy, a neurological disorder (or seizure disorder) which has affected her younger brother, Devon Staubus, and consequently her entire family, for nearly half her life.
“In 2007, [Devon] had meningitis and it caused him to be epileptic,” Kyla explained. Epilepsy not only affects the person with it but their family and “everyone around them.”
