Meet Halima Aden, Muslim Teenaged Beauty Pageant Contestant Makes History

We are all born to stand out, nobody’s born to blend in. How boring would this world be if we were all the same. – Halima Aden

Meet Halima Aden, the St. Cloud State University, 19-year old student that’s trending throughout the internet for making history. This past week weekend, Aden became the first woman to wear a hijab and burkini while competing in the Miss Minnesota USA pageant. She’s made history simply because she was able to compete while wearing the hijab throughout the entire pageant. She also held firm to her culture’s traditions by wearing a burkini, which is a full-body bathing suit which covers everything from the neck down.

Halima Aden not only reps her culture, but the bilingual college student received a huge applause from the audience as she walked across the stage. Although Aden did not win, she made it into the top 15, where they only chose 5 contestants to go into the final round.

Born a in Kenya, Aden was a refugee prior to her family moving to St. Cloud, Minnesota. Never before competing in a beauty pageant, Aden believed this was the perfect opportunity to change any perceptions some may have regarding Islam and Somalia. According to CBS news, Aden explained:

“I thought for a very long time that I ad to conform or maybe change the way i look, or maybe the hijab was dimming by beauty. I took a moment and then i realized, you know what, there’s a lot of girls who do wear this and this is their reality. It just made me even more prouder to wear it.”

With the climate in the United States being so intense right now, stories like Aden’s helps in cementing the bond that we all should have to respect and admire varying cultures.