Utah teen crowned national Sonic Drive-In prom queen

Utah teen crowned national Sonic Drive-In prom queen

(Courtesy of Malyssa Mecham)


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AMERICAN FORK — This year was supposed to be 16-year-old Malyssa Mecham’s first prom. When the coronavirus pandemic ruined her plans, she was obviously disappointed.

That was until she saw an ad from one of her favorite restaurants: Sonic Drive-In.

In an effort to bring some brightness to a dark year for high schoolers, Sonic launched a nationwide contest for prom "QuaranKing" and "QuaranQueen." When Mecham saw the prize for winning — a brand new car — she decided to go for it.

She ran into a problem almost immediately.

"I didn’t have a prom dress,” she said, “and the stores were closed so I couldn’t go buy one."

Determined to enter the contest, she decided that she would make her own.

Luckily, she comes from a family of seamstresses and learned to sew in fifth grade. In fact, since the pandemic started, Mecham and her mother and her sister have made over a thousand masks they donated to health care professionals.

She was definitely up to the task to make her own dress, but she wanted it to show just how much she truly loved Sonic. She and her sister drove to their local Sonic and asked the manager if they could have some extra wrappers.

Once he realized what they were going to use them for, the manager came out with a whole goody bag of wrappers, napkins, mints and other Sonic-themed material. The Mecham sisters got to work and finished the dress in just over a day.

First, they made the lining of the dress out of a pillowcase. Next, they carefully cut the metallic wrappers and began to glue them on in a fringe pattern.

"We had a picture reference, but a dress like this didn’t really exist before, so we made it up as we went," Mecham said.

They even made earrings out of the iconic Sonic mints and a corsage out of a styrofoam Sonic cup, more wrappers and some ribbon. She topped it all off with a pair of red-and-white rollerskates.

The next day they decided to do a prom-style photoshoot outside of a Sonic restaurant.

"Getting ready in the morning and getting my hair and makeup done was so fun. I didn’t get to go to prom, but it felt like I was getting ready for prom," Mecham said.

Her sister took pictures of her, and they made a video to include with her submission.

"Sonic, if you can’t tell from my wardrobe’s scream, I’m more than ready to be your queen!" she wrote in her caption.

A few weeks later, Mecham’s mom and sister woke her up with the news that she had won.

"I literally jumped out of bed and was screaming," Mecham said, laughing. "I called people I knew to tell them. It was the best morning news ever."

She’s still doing some research on which car she wants, but she says she just wants something reliable that will last her a long time.

Mostly, she’s just happy she had a chance to distract herself from the pandemic and got a chance to use material that would have been trash to create a piece of art unique and impressive enough to win her the crown of her own kind of nationwide prom.

"At prom, it’s usually the most popular girl at school who wins. This contest showed that you can win with creativity," Mecham said. "Even though we’re in a hard time, you can still focus on the good and make something beautiful."


Jenny Rollins

About the Author: Jenny Rollins

Jenny Rollins is a freelance journalist based in Utah. She has a bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University and a master's degree in journalism from Boston University. Contact her at jennyjrollins@gmail.com.

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