Selena Bailey Watkins wants to become fitness role model to the nation
Selena Bailey Watkins may have been crowned Miss Black USA this month, but her pageant life began when she won the 2005 Miss RU Caribbean pageant.
“It planted a seed,’’ says Watkins, 24, a Rutgers alumna whose parents are from Antigua.
Watkins, a 2009 graduate who double majored in dance and journalism at Rutgers, is a dance teacher and fitness instructor. Until recently she worked as an associate producer for Kiss FM in New York.
During her reign as Miss Black USA, Watkins, of Yonkers, NY, will partner with the Heart Truth Campaign to promote awareness of heart disease among women – which kills one in four – and how exercise can help reduce risk.
For Watkins, being fit isn’t about how you look. “It’s about how you feel,’’ she says.”You can be healthy at any size. It’s not about being a size 0.’’
At Rutgers, Watkins was not only a highly skilled dancer in several genres, from ballet to Afro-Caribbean, she was also an outstanding student who graduated magna cum laude, says Julia Ritter, chair of the Dance Department at Mason Gross School of the Arts.
Watkins was intent on doing what she loved and inspiring others to do the same, says Ritter: “She was someone who had a really great inner guidance system that affected how she moved through life. She’s a wonderful combination of someone who is talented, smart and empathetic
.’’.
Although the Miss Black USA competition has the traditional pageant components –a fitness competition, evening gown and talent competitions, and a question and answer session – Watkins entered the pageant because it “celebrates black women’’ and emphasizes achievement and potential over external beauty, she says.
“Miss Black USA wasn’t just about what my hair or my face looked like. It felt like the right place to be. Some people ask, ‘why separate black women and create their own pageant?’ Because we don’t always get a lot of attention,’’ says Watkins.
Says Karen Arrington, CEO of Miss Black USA. “Selena wowed the judges in all four phases of competition. She demonstrated the ability to carry on the mission of our pageant.’’
An unsatisfying experience with another national pageant, which she doesn’t like to name, convinced Watkins to enter Miss Black USA.
“I didn’t see a lot of girls who looked like me,’’ she says.. “I felt like I couldn’t be myself. Everything I am had to be toned down. The Miss Black USA pageant was completely different.’’
Watkins worked hard to be a professional dancer at Rutgers and internships with the School of Communication and Information helped her establish a career in radio.
She interned at the BRAVO network and Hot 97, New York’s hip-hop station, before landing at Kiss FM.
“That never would have happened if it weren’t for the experiences and opportunities I had at Rutgers,’’ says Watkins, who was laid off a few months ago when the station was sold.
She hopes her platform as Miss Black USA will give her the chance to work with First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign and eventually reach her goal of becoming a a fitness role model to the nation.
“I want to be like Jeanette Jenkins, a black celebrity fitness trainer who has taken her career to new heights,’’ says Watkins. “She’s definitely an inspiration.’’