Decatur resident to compete in Miss Black USA

She will compete for the title of Miss Black USA this summer in Washington D.C.

A producer at WAND-TV since August, Brooks, 24, began competing in pageants while attending high school in Carol Stream, a western Chicago suburb. She is using her platform to inspire young people to read and achieve.

A driven athlete as a young woman, she has battled a serious medical problem since high school, but has not let it hold her back from succeeding in her education, career and the pageant circuit.

In 2009, Brooks received a letter in the mail about the Miss Teen Illinois USA contest, to be held at McCormick Place, near downtown Chicago. She responded and was accepted as a contestant.

“I was always interested in being in the entertainment industry,” said Brooks, an accomplished pianist. “I always wanted to be onstage.”

She prepared for her first pageant by Googling “pageants.” She did her own hair and makeup.

“I just wanted to see if I could do it, if I could go onstage in a swimsuit in front of a bunch of people, seeing if I could go onstage other than for recitals,” she said.

There were 101 young women in the competition. Because they were teens, they wore one-piece swimsuits, in addition to evening gowns.

“I stayed at the hotel with other contestants. We had pajama parties, ice cream parties. It was three days and two nights of just pageant fever,” she recalled.

Brooks enjoyed being around other women who were also goal-oriented.

“I didn't place, but I did enjoy competing,” she said. “By doing that pageant it gave me the opportunity to be onstage and perform. I didn't win my first pageant so I had to do it again.”

As a freshman at Eastern Illinois University, where she worked as a reporter and editor at WEIU-TV, she competed for the title of Miss Illinois Intercontinental. She placed as second runner-up in the pageant while winning Miss Congeniality and an award for most community service.

“Competing is a lot of fun,” said Brooks, who experienced the joy of winning as a track star at Glenbard North High School, where she qualified for the state tournament in the 200 meter sprint as a senior.

During her college years, Brooks, who was born on the South Side of Chicago and still spends time with her family there, competed twice for the Miss Chicago title. During the 2014 pageant, she played “My Heart Will Go On” on the piano.

“That's my main talent,” Brooks said. “That is a big part of who I am.”

To step up her pageantry game, she hired two coaches for the Miss Illinois United States contest in March 2015, a highly regarded interview coach with whom she consulted via Skype, and a stage presentation coach.

“We met every weekend,” Brooks said. “Then I really understood what pageantry is all about. It's more than wearing a crown and sash. It's holding a title and having that responsibility.”

Brooks, who was living in Springfield while working as a statehouse reporter for National Public Radio, fell short of placing at that pageant. But the judges offered her the honor of coming back in 2016 as Miss Springfield. The plan was for her to represent the city this year and inaugurate the pageant in that city in 2017.

But Brooks declined the offer, after she decided to compete instead for Miss Black Illinois.

“When I found out there were black pageants, I thought it would better highlight my beauty and what I could bring to the table,” Brooks said. “I thought it would be a better accomplishment.”

It was a unique competition this year. Because there was no state director in place in Illinois, the national board in Washington of the Miss Black USA pageant held an essay contest.

Brooks wrote about her platforms, children's literacy and ovarian cancer. Both causes are close to her heart. She beat out 15 other contestants.

“I have an ovarian cyst, a benign tumor on my right ovary,” Brooks said, adding that this recurring problem impacted her athletic career as a student.

She had to have her cyst surgically removed before her senior year in high school, and could not fully exert herself after that. She could not even walk for six weeks, could not use her abdominal muscles and had to restrain herself from laughing.

“I couldn't do anything physical,” she recalled.

A cyst began growing back almost immediately, but she wasn't aware of it until more than two years later.

“It got so big, people asked me if I was pregnant. I looked like I was six months pregnant. It's serious pain.”

One of Brooks's missions is to raise awareness of ovarian cysts and cancer.

“With ovarian cancer, early diagnosis is key, early detection is important. By the time somebody gets diagnosed, it's probably too late.”

Her other platform reflects sunnier experiences. As a child she read voraciously, and to this day she enjoys reading to children.

“Reading is very important at a young age,” Brooks said. “When I was a kid, I would skip recess to go to the library. I would say: There are more places to go in the library than in the playground. I had more fun reading than going outside.”

As Miss Black Illinois, and possibly Miss Black USA, Brooks wants to show children that reading can open doors for them, in their lives and careers.

“I want to make sure they are reading and not just on the Internet, on electronics all day,” Brooks said.