5 things you don’t know about Miss Universe Top 10 finalist Cheslie Kryst

We got a behind-the-scenes look at the life of Miss Universe finalist, Cheslie Kryst, earlier this year while she was living in Charlotte. At the time, she was balancing her Miss North Carolina duties with working as an attorney and prepping for Miss USA. Here are five things you probably haven’t heard about the pageant queen, who made the Top 10 of the Miss Universe contest before being eliminated:

• Yes, all that hair is all hers. Kryst was gifted with a bountiful head of hair, and strangers would come up and ask about it. (She’d occasionally oblige non-believers by flipping her head and proving there were no extensions, but draws the line at strangers touching her mane.) Her sister, Page, is her stylist and owns her own salon in Charlotte. Kryst addressed the debate over whether to wear her black hair natural to work in her fashion blog, White Collar Glam.
• She knows what 30 seconds feels like. Kryst put the same kind of diligence into prepping for Miss USA pageant interview questions as she did prepping for the bar exam, putting hundreds of potential questions on note cards and practicing them during car rides. After awhile, she didn’t even need to time herself; her brain could tell when 30 seconds was up.
• Insomnia cookies are her favorite. (But you can bet she hasn’t had one in months, because she’s super strict about her diet in the months leading up to pageants.) She makes no secret of her love for the cookie franchise’s treats — so much so, that her law firm, Poyner Spruill, celebrated her Miss USA win the day after her victory with a big box of Insomnia cookies.

• She went by Ce-Ce in high school. And she was Miss Fort Mill High School and prom queen in her teen years in South Carolina, as well as a track and field star. She went back to Fort Mill High after her Miss USA win to talk to students.

• She finds competing in swimsuits “empowering.” Her dad was a bodybuilder and her mom competed in pageants (she was Mrs. North Carolina US), so fitness and healthy eating were important in her home growing up. “My entire life, all I’ve done is be proud of my body,” Kryst told the Observer when she was vying for the Miss USA crown.

This story was originally published December 8, 2019 at 9:23 PM.