The organization behind the famed Miss USA pageant will give contestants access to mental health workshops to “avoid depression” following the suicide of 2019 winner Chesley Krist in New York.
Krystle Stewart, 40, president of the Miss USA organization and 2008 winner, announced on Friday a new program that will aim to help beauty queens cope with the anxiety and depression that comes with becoming an overnight star. and fighting a grueling spectacle, she said.
“I set up workshops,” Stewart told TMZ. “Mental health workshops, mindset preparation, how do you prepare for the competition, not only physically but also mentally, how do you prepare for the competition? So there will be mental health workshops at my Crystal Stewart Foundation.”
The announcement comes two months after Krist, 30, jumped to her death from her New York City apartment. According to her mother, the beauty pageant winner struggled with high-functioning depression, which she hid “shortly before her death.”
Krist has been very open about and advocates for mental health. In October 2019, she took to Facebook on the occasion of World Mental Health Day, offering tips on how she manages stress.
“I do a lot to keep my mental health, and the most important thing I did was talk to a counselor,” she said in 2019. “She is really easy to talk to. She gives me great strategies, especially if I’m sad or happy, or have a busy month ahead of me.
Miss USA will offer mental health workshops to her contestants to help them develop “coping mechanisms” and “avoid depression” if they lose. The workshops were hosted by 2008 winner and current owner of Miss USA Krystle Stewart (pictured) and her foundation.
“When I’m not talking to my consultant, I take the time at the end of each day to just relax,” Krist said. “I turn off my phone, I turn off my phone, I don’t answer messages. I just sit and watch my favorite movies.”
Now Stewart said she’s noticed “anxiety” among the contestants and wants to help.
“A lot of times – not always – but some of them get depressed after the competition, in the run-up to the competition – sometimes they get anxious and I notice that during pre-conversations with some state title holders, so I wanted to create workshops,” she told TMZ. .
She also said that many beauty queens who lose the pageant have a hard time because, unlike “NFL and NBA players,” these women have “one chance, and if they don’t win, that’s it, they can’t come back.” . and compete again.
More importantly, she said her workshops would also help the “winners.” She said, “Miss USA, she has a lot to do after winning.” The next day she moves to Los Angeles, participates in the Miss Universe pageant, she is just a celebrity. It requires a lot of mental preparation.”
Mental health workshops will be held both before and after the competition to help women “cope with any loss or gain”.
Through the programs, Stewart said the foundation will engage the community of psychiatrists and mental health experts to help women mentally prepare for such a big competition and perform in front of large crowds – both in person and online.
Chesley Kirst, 30, is crowned Miss USA 2019 by former winner Sarah Rose Summers.
The beauty queen has been open about her mental health struggles but kept her high-functioning depression a secret. She jumped to her death in January from her Manhattan apartment building.
In a pre-competition workshop, they will be given advice on how to use different coping mechanisms when they start to get “nervous” or “feel overwhelmed”.
“A lot of that will be about coping skills,” she told TMZ.
The post-competition workshops will focus on helping these women avoid “that state of depression if you don’t win.”
What are you going to do after the competition? The competition is not the end of the world, it is not the end of everything,” she said. “It’s a great asset, it’s great to have this crown, but there are other things in life that you can still achieve and succeed even if you don’t win.
“So we want to give them these resources, tools and survival mechanisms.”
While Stewart was already implementing these initiatives prior to Krist’s death, she said the loss of the beauty queen made her “speed up the process.”
‘[Her death] really hit not only the competition world, but the world in a big way,” she told TMZ. “Chesley was such a pillar in the community, she was just a pillar of strength, beauty, perfection, and seeing her in this tragedy, we really wanted to give positive energy to the state title holders and really wanted to get someone. professional on board.
Stewart also said that on the Monday after Krist’s death, she visited a therapist for a pre-arranged appointment and asked her therapist to talk to “those girls” to “give them something.”
Krist was a lawyer and also worked as a correspondent for the variety show Extra. She won the 2019 Miss USA pageant using her platform to talk about social and criminal justice reform.
Krist, who had an apartment on the ninth floor of a luxury building on West 42nd Street in midtown Manhattan, jumped off the 29th floor of a 60-story skyscraper around 7:15 a.m. and was found dead on a snow-covered sidewalk.
Sources said she jumped from an area that was open to the entire building after she was last seen on the 29th floor terrace.
Just hours before, Krist wrote on her Instagram page, “May this day bring you peace and quiet.”
The police found a note in the apartment saying that she wanted to leave everything to her mother, a former beauty pageant winner.
The note did not explain her actions.
“Not only beautiful, but also smart – she was a lawyer,” a police source told the New York Post. “She has a life that anyone would envy. … This is so sad.’
As Miss North Carolina, Krist captured the Miss USA tiara in a glitzy, winged dress for the national costume contest, in homage to Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.”
During the contest, she described herself as a “weird child” with a “unibrow”, now part of the first generation of truly empowered women.
When asked in the final round to use one word to describe her generation, Krist replied “innovative.”
According to police, Krist jumped off the outdoor terrace on the 29th floor of the 60-story Orion building.
Police officers are seen at the site where Krist jumped to her death on West 42nd Street.
“I’m standing here in Nevada, in a state that has the first female-majority legislature in the entire country,” she said. “My generation is the first generation with such forward-thinking thinking that includes inclusion, diversity, strength, and women’s empowerment. I look forward to further progress in my generation.”
Krist was born in Jackson, Michigan to a white Polish-American father and a black mother, April Simpkins, winner of the 2002 Mrs. North Carolina pageant. She grew up in Charlotte and graduated from the University of South Carolina.
She received her law degree from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she has been involved in a number of activities including the National Association of Black Law Students, according to her LinkedIn page.
After completing her bar, she worked as an associate at Poyner-Spruill LLP in Charlotte from September 2017 to May 2019 as part of the firm’s civil litigation team.
She worked pro bono to reduce sentences for prisoners.
In a statement, Krist’s family described her as “one who has inspired others around the world with her beauty and strength.”
“In devastation and great sorrow, we share the passing of our beloved Chesley,” the statement said.
“Her great light was what inspired others all over the world with her beauty and power. She cared, loved, laughed and beamed. Chesley embodied love and served others as a social justice advocate, Miss USA and host of Extra.
“But most importantly, as a daughter, sister, friend, mentor and colleague, we know her influence will live on. As we contemplate our loss, the family is now asking for privacy.”