Newest Little Miss Solano County remains rooted in community
At just 3years old, not yet able to muster her first steps, little Amaya Thompson has already whooed pageant judges.
At three, she won her first pageantry accolade as the recipient of "Best Dressed," then at 5, it was "Best Smile," and in May of this year, at just 6 years old, she received her highest title yet - Little Miss Solano County.
Now, before it gets misconstrued, this is nothing that resembles TLC's reality show, Toddlers & Tiaras. It is no cutthroat competition in which, backstage, 3-year-olds chuck a hairbrush at their manager slash mom, or sip "Go-Go Juice" made of equal parts Redbull and Mountain Dew.
The program is run by Star Producers, a women's development program designed to push young ladies out of their comfort zones and prepare them to present the "best version" of themselves through a little friendly competition.
Solano County Pageants (SCP), under the command of Owner and Director Carole Warren, has been a community staple for more than 50 years, with titleholders serving surrounding communities like Vallejo, Vacaville, Napa, Fairfield, and more.
According to Amaya's family, they first noted a pull toward pageantry in her personality.
"She's very girly girl, likes to have her looks, her hair done - she's always worried about how she's dressed, and she's very independent in different things," said Amaya's mother, Yvette Delapaz. "So we decided to get her in pageantry."
The first year, she says, was a test to see how Amaya responded to the pageantry process, which included workshops with other young ladies and training on things like poses, speaking skills, and stage presentation.
Since then, Amaya has wanted to return to Solano County's pageants every year.
The experience for Amaya has been one marked by speedy personal growth.
"I noticed that with her doing pageants and her being around other girls of her age and from different places, it's helped build her confidence - she's more eager to go talk and get to know other people, and she's making friends all while doing it," said Delapaz.
Like any 3-year-old, in her first year, Amaya was "very timid," her mother added, walking on stage with a hand shielding her mouth. Now, when the little one steps foot on the stage, "she owns it," she said.
In addition to her title as Little Miss Solano County - an accomplishment Delapaz credits to Amaya's unabashed confidence this year - she also won the award for "Best Model."
As a mother, hopeful for her daughter's future growth, she hopes that the experience reflects positively on Amaya.
"I just hope that when she continues to grow into a young adult, she looks back on these days like 'Wow, I did this and had such a good time,'" she said. "And I hope that winning this will give her lifelong friendships and family within the pageant - even outside of the pageant when she goes to community events."
Outside of pageantry, Amaya is just like any other 7-year-old these days: squishy-obsessed and keen on producing TikToks.
Her current fixation is filming "squishy dumpling unboxing videos," - a viral social media trend that involves unpackaging a mystery-box style squishy toy that resembles a colorful dumpling from a plastic bamboo-style steamer basket.
Most children film the videos in hopes of finding the ultra-rare gold dumpling. Amaya has already found such. That video garnered over 11.4 million views. missamayathompon
Outside of the digital world, she also holds a yellow belt in Karate - a favorite pastime of hers -and in July, she will start local baseball.
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