Samantha Nigliazzo | USOA Mrs. Kansas 2023
The Portrait Master’s 2022 Bronze image award for Samantha’s headshot. The best part? She asked me not to retouch the smile lines around her eyes. I was more than happy to oblige. #celebratewhoweare #embraceourbeauty
Samantha Nigliazzo
is an wonderful mother, a military spouse, and an incredible victim’s advocate through her service with the Wichita Area Sexual Assault Center. She’s a born and raised Kansan! My favorite thing though: she is determined to reach her goals and make her dreams a reality–whatever they might be!
When we first met last year I quickly learned we had a lot in common. Mom, check. Air Force spouse, check. Works with sexual assault victims, check (fun fact: I did for the first part of my Air Force career and for the last few years I have volunteered my time and talent to help The Women’s Network in Wichita, Kansas). Wanted to do something new just for herself, check! Dang, not often you meet someone with such specific similarities.
She was the guest speaker at a women’s networking event and she warned us her work phone might ring since she was on call. And yup, sure enough, that phone rang. Her assistance wasn’t required thankfully and that’s when I got the pleasure of meeting Mrs. Kansas, a graduate from Liberty University with a Master’s in Crisis Response and Trauma. I learned quite a bit that night about the world of pageants. For starters, there are multiple different organizations, whaaa? And then within those organizations there are different categories, so Miss Kansas and Mrs. Kansas are two different categories. Then there is Teen categories and so much more! *mind blown*
How does one compete? I’ll let Mrs. Kansas answer that for you but what I can tell you is that one must start out at the local level (i.e. Wichita) and then compete at the state level and go on to the nationals level. CANNOT wait to see her represent Kansas on April 2nd, 2023! WE ARE ALL ROOTING FOR YOU GIRLFRIEND!
You are now leaving your comfort zone (AGAIN)
While in hair and make-up preceding our session in October 2022, she talked about their family being stationed in California and how much stress the constant deployments were not just for her husband, Tony, but also for her as a mom of young kids. It’s easy to lose yourself in motherhood—I know I’m not just speaking for myself. That was me—active duty turned stay at home parent turned who-even-am-I? Meanwhile my husband was also on active duty. Samantha’s description of her life in California certainly resonated with me especially when she said, “when we found out we were moving to Kansas, with my husband not being deployable, I told him I wanted to do something JUST for me… even if I just tried it and hated it, I wanted to at least do something for myself. I decided to compete in a pageant. And he supported me 100%.”
Ok lady, we are still “twin-ing” because when I told my husband I wanted to circle back to my love of photography because I wanted to do something for ME, he supported me 100%. And talk about leaving your comfort zone. And I know Samantha likely had the same *oH sH!t* moment when you commit and now you gotta walk the walk. Even if it’s scary or nerve-wracking or surreal. But you know what, it’s one foot in front of the other. One day at a time. Next thing you know, you look back and think “wow look at that GROWTH!!!” Yeah friends, growth happens outside of your comfort zone (read that again). And it doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time and patience and consistency and determination and stamina. MINDSET!!
But Samantha is no stranger to leaving her comfort zone and diving full force into the unknown (am I the only one who just re-read that and sang it in a Frozen melody? No, ok.) She shared with us at the networking event how she met her husband and committed to moving to California to be with him and after a few short months of courtship they married. She recounted how she had to tell her parents that she was going to be moving. Out-of-state. To be with a recently met then-boyfriend. The risk and commitment certainly paid off because Samantha and Tony have been happily married for 8 lovely years.
“She took her mess and made it her message” - Samantha Nigliazzo
Sometimes you just have to dream and jump. Take a leap of faith. Try something new! Challenge yourself to do something you’ve never done before but have always wanted. Maybe it doesn’t work out, in which case, you have a whole lot of experience and no regret (win-win if you ask me!). Or perhaps it’s exactly what you were called to do. What gives you the purest joy and greatest level of fulfillment. Either way, you may never know if you don’t dream, commit, and jump. The rest is easy. Not to get all Nike on you but, JUST DO IT!
I’ll close with saying this: I love meeting so many incredible people like Samantha and having the honor of photographing them and getting to know them on a personal level. Samantha, I’m so thankful to rub shoulders with an incredible woman like you! Never stop chasing your dreams and never stop being a steadfast role model to your young daughters and girls everywhere!