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PROVO — Josephina Lealaitafea had never given much thought to pageants growing up.
Offered the opportunity to take part in the Miss Samoa USA contest, though, she seized the opportunity. "I've always felt this inner calling to give back to my people," said the Brigham Young University junior, who grew up in West Jordan.
She won the contest earlier this month, beating out four competitors, though she had only about two-and-a-half weeks of preparation, and will travel to Samoa later in August to take part in the Miss Samoa contest, which culminates on Sept. 8. Rather than a beauty contest, she sees participation in the pageants as a means of empowering the Samoan community as a whole, not just women, and promoting pride.
Though her grandparents on both sides of her family originally come from Samoa, located in the southern Pacific Ocean, Lealaitafea and her parents were born in the United States. Indeed, she hadn't really delved too deeply into her background until she started attended BYU. Now, she says, her Samoan roots are "part of my identity."
Tofu Alofipo of Las Vegas, Nevada, and Malia Efferding revived the Miss Samoa USA pageant this year after a hiatus of 15 years to promote and celebrate Samoan culture in the United States. As of 2020, the Samoan population in the United States, alone or in combination with other racial groups, numbered nearly 257,000. That made it the second-largest contingent of Pacific Islanders in the country from any specific place, alone or in combination with another group, behind Native Hawaiians, who collectively numbered just over 680,000, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures.
Still, it's a small pocket of the overall population, even in Utah, where the concentration of Pacific Islanders exceeds most other U.S. states, which can bode against overt displays of Samoan pride. "Sometimes it's really difficult to be different," Alofipo said.
Events like the pageant, though, can help promote that pride, and the return of the Miss Samoa USA contest after 15 years, she thinks, yielded results, even if only five contestants took part. Contestants faced an impromptu question as part of the competition to demonstrate their communication skills and intelligence and also took part in evening wear, swimsuit and talent contests.
"It taught our contestants pride in themselves," she said. After taking part, "they feel more confident in themselves. The feel beautiful. They feel they can conquer the world."
Though Samoa, not to be confused with the nearby U.S. territory of American Samoa, is an independent nation, Miss Samoa contest organizers allow contestants of Samoan descent from other countries. Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand all have participants, according to Alofipo, and now the mainland United States will again have a representative. The Miss Samoa contest feeds into other regional contests, she said, and even global competitions.
For her part, Lealaitafea's ambitions extend beyond pageants. She's now studying cell biology and physiology at BYU with the hope of attending medical school and eventually serving the Pacific Islander community as a doctor, melding modern medicine and traditional healing practices. Along the way, she also hopes to dispel stereotypes like the notion that Pacific Islanders can only excel in athletics.
"There's so much more to our lives than this box I think our people have been put into," she said.
