Catlettsburg Native Allison Spears Crowned Miss Tops in Lexington, Named Derby Princess too

    For Catlettsburg native Allison Spears, stepping onto the big stage has become quite a familiar home.    Since the fall of 2015, Spears has been stepping onto platforms and winning titles.

    "I never dreamed in a million years I would be competing in pageants," Spears said.  
"I was a science nerd in high school and have always struggled with a lack of self confidence."

    During the fall of 2015, Spears, then a high school senior, decided to participate in the Distinguished Young Women of Boyd County scholarship program and won. This sent her on to compete in the state-wide Distinguished Young Women of Kentucky. There she took home the spirit award.    

    Because of her academic excellence, Spears received scholarship money from the programs and pageants she's participated in. In the fall of 2016, she entered college at the University of Kentucky and began to pursue her undergraduate degree in neuroscience studies.

    In September 2018, Spears began a bucket list and says participating in a pageant was something she wanted to accomplish. She decided on the Miss Tops of Lexington pageant, a preliminary to the Miss Kentucky pageant. She won the crown.   

    "I never dreamed I would win," Spears said.  "I've never had self-confidence and have always compared myself to others in a negative way."

    Spears said she's had to place herself on a social media diet from time-to-time because of the negative impact it has had on her self-confidence. "You think thoughts like, 'They're prettier than me.  They're skinnier than me, and they're healthier than me,'" she said. "I'm learning how to put that all in check."

    Since winning Miss Tops of Lexington, Spears has worked closely with the American Heart Association to support her platform, which promotes the importance of a healthy heart. “I believe in promoting heart health but doing what makes your heart happy is just as important to a person's overall health. My motto is, 'For the heart, from the heart' and I believe that works on many levels."  

    Spears credits her platform motto for helping aid her decision to change the course of her career path.  "I began as a neuroscience major but have now changed direction and will be entering into law school this coming fall of 2019," she said.

    In addition to winning Miss Tops of Lexington, Spears was one of 130 applicants to the Kentucky Derby Festival Royal Court. After the first interview round, the pool was narrowed down to 25 applicants. On January 5, 2019, Spears received the call that she had been selected as one of the five Kentucky Derby Festival Princesses. Spears is the only person from Boyd County to ever receive this honor.

    "I want to be very clear that this is not a pageant and has nothing to do with outer beauty," Spears said. "The focus is on choosing five soulful girls who are academically challenging and involved in their communities."  

    When asked about her next venture, Spears is excited to announce she will be competing in the Mrs. Kentucky pageant scheduled for June of 2019. "If I win Mrs. Kentucky, I'll go on to compete in the Mrs. America pageant in September of 2019," she said.

    In preparation for the upcoming pageant, she's attending as many preliminary competitions as she can in order to make friends with the other young women who will soon accompany her on stage.   

    "I'm new to the system and a social butterfly," Spears said.  "I've been trying really hard to make connections." 

    Spears said she and the other pageant participants are forging friendships that will last a lifetime. "We're all on a group text and support one another's philanthropies," Spears said. "Everyone helps everyone and that's how it should be in pageants as well as in life!”