Shine, Sparkle, Hope

Trigger warning: This story contains content related to suicide.

Please read with care. 

Earlier this summer Amelia Phommachanh stood on a stage in Overland Park wearing a sparkling red gown and an excited smile alongside four other contestants for Miss Kansas USA. The 20-year-old Derby native was one of the top five during her first time on stage, ultimately earning third runner-up. 

It’s a far cry from the place Phommachanh found herself six years ago, a time that’s central to her mission online and in front of pageant crowds and judges. At 14, Phommachanh suffered a mental health crisis, and was admitted to the hospital with suicidal ideations and a near suicide attempt. Phommachanh says it was a transitional time in her life — her parents were going through a divorce, she was switching schools, and now she recognizes that she didn’t have the tools to cope with her pain. 

“I knew one thing — I didn’t want to die, I just wanted my pain to stop,” Phommachanh said. “As soon as I figured that out, I was able to talk to people and get help to properly cope.” 

According to a 2023 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 22 percent of high school students reported having seriously considered suicide in 2022, and 10 percent of high school students attempted suicide in 2022. Phommachanh recognized that other teens and young adults have experienced the same mental health challenges she felt six years ago, and through pageants she felt empowered to share her story with others. 

“Before pageants came into my life, I felt a lack of direction in where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do; I knew I had a platform but didn’t know how to use it,” Phommachanh said. 

At just 17 Phommachanh competed in her first pageant: Miss Kansas Teen. While she enjoyed the pageant, she thought her career in pageants was over, until she was approached by the organizers of the Miss Wichita Asian Festival pageant. Phommachanh is Laotian, but didn’t always feel so connected to her Laotian roots, until the Miss Asian Festival pageant opened her eyes to the Asian community and culture in Wichita. 

“I was completely blown away when I set foot on that Miss Asian Festival stage and saw all the unique cultures come to light,” Phommachanh said. “To understand my family’s fight for freedom and truly finding that voice has totally inspired and changed my journey.”

Phommachanh earned recognition as Miss Asian Cultural Ambassador in 2023, and then became a finalist in Miss Kansas America with the platform “HEAR For You: Suicide Prevention,” with the acronym HEAR standing for help, empathy, awareness and real conversation. Earlier this year, Phommachanh earned the title of Miss Derby USA through the Miss ICT USA organization, which brought her to that Overland Park stage in June of this year where the final question was: “What would you tell your younger self?”

“You know, growing up I had a mental health crisis, but if there’s one thing I could tell my younger self it’s that there is light at the end of the tunnel and it does get better,” Phommachanh said. “I wasn’t able to identify, I wasn’t able to understand that this pain that I felt right now was temporary, but as an adult I can understand that.”

“I am so much more than the emotions that I face, we are so much more than the challenges we face, there is so much light at the end of the tunnel.” — Amelia Phommachanh

Now, Phommachanh has made suicide prevention a core mission well beyond the pageant stage. She is a board member for Mental Health America of South-Central Kansas. As a mentor for teenagers and kids, she partners with the National Alliance on Mental Illness for their End the Silence campaign where she shares her story with middle and high school students, and she promotes mental health to her 3,300 Instagram followers and her nearly 100k followers on TikTok. 

Phommachanh’s Instagram page links to the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, and her bio reads “be good to people for no reason.” She shares photos and videos makeup-free sharing her life behind the scenes alongside videos of her in full glam modeling or taking the stage for a pageant. 

“Comparison is the number one thief of joy, and as somebody who’s grown up on social media that’s something I’ve had to navigate for myself,” Phommachanh said. “It’s combatting the romanticized thoughts and showing the reality of it.”

Phommachanh says she makes mental health a priority in her personal life — she talks to people often about how she feels; she journals, leans on her faith, works in her gardens and cares for her plants, exercises and spends quality time with her loved ones. She prioritizes time for rest and reflection. 

“Keep your inner circle small to people you trust, so you aren’t giving out your energy to everyone,” Phommachanh said. “Your energy is so sacred. It’s okay to go out and speak to people and that’s what I do because that fulfills me, but it’s also taking that time to recharge.”

At just 20 years old, Phommachanh says she has so much to reflect on, and so much to look forward to: “That Amelia who experienced a mental health crisis didn’t think there was hope in the future. It’s really about reflecting and realizing there’s so much more — there’s so much more than what you know.”

Phommachanh was recently named Miss ICT USA. While her pageant career continues to bloom, she is also focused on her modeling career and will soon graduate with her associate’s degree in digital marketing. When asked what the future holds, Phommachanh rattles off several ideas, but at the heart of them all, she wants to help people. 

“At the end of the day I’m human. I still struggle — we all do — but it’s about understanding the struggle and moving forward from it,” Phommachanh said. “I am so much more than the emotions that I face, we are so much more than the challenges we face, there is so much light at the end of the tunnel.” 

You can follow Phommachanh’s mission on Instagram or TikTok at @memepho.