Distinguished Young Women 2019 Winner Dora Guo Talks About Her Experience

MOBILE, Ala. — This year’s Distinguished Young Women competition has wrapped up in Mobile, with Dora Guo of Illinois named the 2019 winner. Guo said she wants to use the platform to send a message to younger girls: always be true to yourself. She credited the experience with strengthening her belief that success does not require changing who you are, a theme that ran through her remarks in the days after she accepted the title on the Mobile Civic Center stage.

“There’s a way for you to be successful in the way that is most authentic to you,” Guo said. “I don’t feel like I have to be any less weird or geeky to be this representative. I think that means a lot to show everybody that.” Her words struck a chord with the audience of families, host families and program volunteers who had spent two weeks watching the Class of 2019 compete, and they capture the spirit of a program that has spent decades telling young women that achievement and individuality belong together.

Over two weeks, the finalists competed and explored the community, taking part in oyster and rib-eating contests and performing for patients at USA Children’s and Women’s Hospital. The whirlwind schedule is a hallmark of the program’s national finals, which bring dozens of high school seniors to Mobile each summer from every state in the country. Between preliminary competition rounds, the participants rehearse group numbers, visit local landmarks, and fan out across the community for service appearances — a deliberate effort, organizers say, to make the week about character and connection rather than competition alone.

A Program Rooted in Mobile’s History

The competition known today as Distinguished Young Women began in Mobile in 1958 under its original name, America’s Junior Miss. It grew out of a local Junior Miss program and expanded into a national scholarship showcase that, over more than six decades, has involved hundreds of thousands of young women and awarded millions of dollars in college scholarships. Alumnae of the program include journalists, physicians, executives, scientists and entertainers — among them news anchor Diane Sawyer, who held the Junior Miss title in the 1960s — and the organization counts its alumni network as one of its greatest assets.

In 2010, the organization rebranded as Distinguished Young Women, a change designed to better reflect its mission of emphasizing education, leadership and talent over pageantry. The program evaluates participants across several categories — scholastic achievement, interview skills, talent, fitness and self-expression — rather than based on appearance, and its judging rubric has long highlighted the interview and scholastic components as the heart of the competition. Local programs feed into state programs, and state winners converge on Mobile each year for the national finals, giving the city an annual economic and cultural infusion each summer.

For Mobile, hosting the event is a point of civic pride. The national finals have traditionally been staged at the Mobile Civic Center Theater, with participants staying in the homes of local host families who take in the contestants for the duration of their visit. The host family experience is often described by participants as one of the most memorable parts of the program, creating friendships that last long after the crowning moment and pulling families from across the country into Mobile’s famously hospitable orbit.

What the Experience Meant to the Winner

Guo spoke with particular warmth about the connections formed during her time in Mobile. In conversations with reporters and program staff after her win, she described the two weeks as transformative — not because of the title itself, but because of the caliber of the young women she competed alongside and the community that embraced them. The oyster-eating and rib-eating contests, staples of the participants’ community itinerary, gave the finalists a chance to let loose in front of locals, and the visit to USA Children’s and Women’s Hospital gave them a reminder of the platform’s real purpose: to be role models for children and young people who look up to them.

She said the experience deepened her appreciation for the program and left her eager to share the opportunity with other young women. Winners of the national title spend the following year traveling as spokespeople for the organization, encouraging girls in middle and high school to participate in local programs, promoting the organization’s Be Your Best Self outreach initiative, and speaking at schools and community events about confidence, education and goal-setting. It is a demanding schedule, and former winners frequently describe the year of service as the beginning of a lifelong relationship with the organization.

The Be Your Best Self program, which participants at every level of Distinguished Young Women help deliver, encourages young people to commit to a set of positive habits — being healthy, involved, studious, ambitious, responsible and, in the program’s phrasing, “BeYourself.” Guo’s message about authenticity fits squarely within that framework, and her insistence that she did not have to tone down her personality to win is precisely the kind of testimony the organization hopes its titleholders will carry into classrooms across the country.

Scholarships and Opportunity

Along with the honor of the title, the 2019 national winner received scholarship support to help fund her college education. Scholarship awards at Distinguished Young Women flow from multiple sources — the national finals, state programs and local programs — and the organization has long emphasized that every participant, regardless of where she places, leaves with interview experience, public speaking practice and connections that serve her well beyond the competition week. Hundreds of colleges and universities also offer additional scholarships to program participants, extending the financial benefit well beyond the cash awards handed out on finals night.

For the incoming class of participants watching from their hometowns, Guo’s win is a demonstration of the program’s core promise. She arrived in Mobile as a high school senior from Illinois and left as the national representative of an organization that has shaped generations of young women — carrying with her a message that being true to yourself is not just good advice, but a winning one.

Two Weeks of Competition in the Port City

The road to the national title is long. Guo first advanced through her local program in Illinois, then captured her state title before earning her place among the finalists invited to Mobile. By the time the national finals begin each June, the participants have already spent months preparing talent routines, polishing interview skills and raising scholarship dollars in their home communities. The national program compresses that preparation into a demanding fortnight of rehearsals and preliminary rounds, with the fitness and self-expression preliminaries typically staged in the first half of the week and talent and interview competitions building toward the finals.

The community events that punctuate the schedule have become a beloved tradition on both sides. Local restaurants and festival organizers roll out the welcome mat for the contestants, and the oyster and rib-eating contests generate some of the loudest laughter of the week as competitors trade their formal gowns for bibs and try their hands at Gulf Coast fare. The hospital visit is quieter but often cited as the most meaningful: participants perform songs, visit patient rooms and play games with children undergoing treatment at USA Children’s and Women’s Hospital, one of the region’s major pediatric medical centers and a longtime partner of local charitable events.

For Mobile, the finals week also functions as an annual showcase for the city itself. Contestants who arrived knowing little about the Gulf Coast leave as ambassadors for a community that many later return to visit, and some alumnae have chosen to make the Mobile area home after college. Civic leaders have long recognized the goodwill the program generates, and local businesses sponsor events throughout the week, from welcome dinners to the closing celebration.

As the 2019 titleholder, Guo now carries that tradition forward. Her year of service will take her message of authenticity to audiences far beyond Illinois and Alabama, and if her time in Mobile is any indication, the young women who hear her speak will be told the same thing she told the crowd the night she won: success does not require becoming someone else — the most powerful thing you can bring to any stage is exactly who you already are.

Guo’s crowning capped a competition that drew families and supporters from across the country to downtown Mobile, where the finalists’ week concluded with the announcement of winners in each category along with the overall title. The presentation and talent portions of the finals are open to the public, and local attendees fill a sizable share of the seats each year, giving Mobile audiences a firsthand look at the scholastic and artistic depth of the national class. For the participants, hearing their names called on finals night is the culmination of years of academic work and community involvement stretching back to their hometown competitions.

The organization’s leadership has repeatedly stressed that the program’s reach extends far beyond the small group on the national stage. With programs operating in hundreds of communities, Distinguished Young Women touches participants at the local level every year — many of whom say the interview practice alone, conducted by panels of community leaders, prepared them better for college admission and job interviews than anything else they experienced in high school. Guo’s platform year gives that pipeline a national voice, and her emphasis on being genuine speaks directly to the teenagers the organization most hopes to reach.