Averie Bishop: Filipino-American becomes first Asian-American to win Miss Texas

Beauty pageant winner is a first-generation college graduate and also has a law degree

Averie Bishop Bishop will represent Texas at the Miss America pageant later in the year. Photo: Averie Bishop / Instagram

Filipino-American Averie Bishop has made history in the US.

She is the first Asian-American to win the title of Miss Texas in the 85-year history of the beauty pageant.

“It’s such an emotional feeling because when I was a kid, I never dreamed of becoming Miss Texas because I didn’t think that anyone looked like me as Miss Texas,” she said in an interview with NBC Dallas Fort-Worth.

Bishop, 25, is a Southern Methodist University graduate, who also studied law at the same school.

On her website, she describes herself as a “first-generation law student diversifying the digital space through education and career-based content.” She also lists herself as a marathon runner who has dined with two presidents and is a Dallas council member.

Another important detail she lists on her website is that of The Tulong Foundation, a non-profit organisation she started with her mother. Bishop is the co-founder and current director. The goal of the non-profit is to aid children in third-world countries with affordable education. It currently sponsors more than 45 children in the Philippines.

Bishop is also quite active on social media, where she has more than 65,000 followers on Instagram and 809,000 followers on TikTok. During her week-long participation in Miss Texas, she shared a number of behind-the-scenes posts. They ranged from how she readies her make-up for portions of the competition to showing off her outfits of the day.

However, some of her most popular recent TikToks have included her winning moment, in which she wrote over the video: “I am the 85th Miss Texas. I am the very first Asian-American woman to represent the Lonestar state but not the last. Representation matters.”

Another video after her winning moment has 2.2 million views, in which she writes: "Me at 2am after crowning finally seeing myself in front of the mirror for the first time. Literally in shock I didn't have anything to say. Pure panic."

Bishop will represent Texas in the coming Miss America pageant to be held in Uncasville, Connecticut later in the year. No date has been announced for the competition as yet.

In other beauty pageant news, scroll the gallery below to see the current Miss Universe 2022 beauty queens that have been crowned.