Bailey Nguyen said she never saw herself as the beautiful girl on the float waving down at the crowd below her. She never saw herself as the girl with the princess wave, gliding across a pageant stage. Despite this, Nguyen has found herself as the winner of the Miss UL Lafayette 2026 pageant and made history as the first Asian American winner of the competition.
Last year was her first pageant, entering it on a whim. Nguyen said she didn’t know anything about it, only that she wanted to compete for fun, make new friends and get a confidence boost. She ended up winning third runner-up, surprising herself.
The senior majoring in kinesiology said initially she didn’t know if she was going to compete again, but after encouragement from friends, she ultimately decided to.
This year, she came with a plan after her previous experience. She practiced her walk, worked on her image, and really thought about why she wanted to participate. Hearing her name called as the winner was a moment she said she will never forget.
“It felt so surreal,” she said.
Despite her confidence now, Nguyen said her nerves during the pageant caused her to second-guess herself at every part of the pageant. She admitted that she was always in her head, thinking she constantly messed up. It wasn’t until she was in the top two that she began to think she could actually win. After winning, she knew it was no accident she was chosen.
“I deserve this, like, I worked hard for this, and I know what I’m gonna do with this,” she said to herself.
A big deciding factor for her to participate again was representation. She explained that the pageant’s lack of diverse winners in the past steered her away from participating for a long time, but after making history as the first Asian American winner of the pageant, she said she wants other girls to see they can do it too.
“When they see me on the stage, I want them to see that, like, they’re beautiful and intelligent too, and they deserve to be represented just as much as everyone else does,” she explained.
Nguyen recognized the high visibility of her new position. She said she plans to use that to her advantage, aiming to bring awareness to things that matter to her. As a Lafayette native, Nguyen has volunteered around the city since she was 12 years old. Through volunteering, she has learned the importance of empathy and caring about things even if they don’t impact her.
“The severity in, like, the experience, may be different, but I can still care, and I can still be kind.”
Health education is important to her, and something she wants to tie into her time as Miss UL. She currently volunteers and interns at a local cancer hospital and plans to get her master’s in radiation oncology. She wants to bridge her passion for cancer and the University by hosting events that inform students about examinations and preventive measures. She is also going to have a collaboration with CVS in the Fall 2026 semester to promote flu shots.
Another important point for her is tying her culture to the role. Being half Vietnamese and Lao, she said she is most excited to represent UL Lafayette at the Louisiana Lao New Year Celebration parade in New Iberia.
A child of immigrants, Nguyen and her siblings are first-generation graduates. Her father worked as an HVAC technician for UL Lafayette for 25 years, so the University is important to her family. Nguyen said the moment was extremely special for her parents, as they got to see her in her best light, representing the place they appreciate the most.
Overall, the doubts she had about the competition dissipated as she received a flood of support from friends, family and the broader Lafayette community. Now Nguyen is focused on doing the job ahead of her and showing future Miss ULs that they don’t have to fit a certain archetype to win.
“I wanted to show, not only myself, but others, what a Miss UL could be,” she said.