Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

There are well-accomplished teens throughout the Commonwealth. 

Yet only in Winchester will you find one competing for the Miss America’s Teen pageant. 

Mallory Jones, a senior currently at George Rogers Clark High School, received the honors after winning the Miss Kentucky’s Teen pageant in June 2024. 

“My jaw was basically on the floor. I really couldn’t believe it,” Jones said. “I kept thinking to myself, ‘This is it… I’ve worked so hard, and my dream is about to come to fruition!’…I turned around and looked into the audience but was just speechless.” 

The Miss America’s Teen pageant occurs from December 31 to January 5 at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in Orlando, Fl. 

“It’s part of the Miss America organization,” Jones added, with the crown of Miss America also being awarded at the same event. “It’s the little sister program to Miss America.” 

“It was extraordinary simply because…even though it was a gift and even though it was a great blessing…there was this really joyous moment where you’re watching your daughter receive something that [wasn’t] just by luck,” said Juliann Jones Irwin, Mallory’s mother. “I saw behind the scenes. I saw the late nights…and working on what she was going to say or what her platform was going to do next. I knew that as long as she felt good about what she did that week, I was proud of her no matter what.” 

Jones received the honor of competing in the Miss Kentucky’s Teen pageant after winning the Miss Danville’s Teen preliminary competition in August 2023. 

Yet she is no stranger to making headlines as she overcame adversity in her youth. 

A former athlete, she turned to pageantry after being diagnosed with a rare congenital heart disease called non-classical Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome following a medical scare when she collapsed in a volleyball game. 

Following the diagnosis, she wasn’t cleared to return to sports. 

However, Jones would not be deterred.

“I’m not the type of person to just sit around, and I decided I wanted to try a pageant; the Clark County Fair was coming up in June of that same year, so for the next few weeks, I kind of worked toward it,” she said. “I won Miss Clark County’s Teen [pageant] in the summer of 2021, and ever since, my love for pageantry has expanded.” 

Her love for pageantry and her desire to help and inform others has also grown. 

Through a community service initiative called “Be Smart. Love Your Heart!” Jones has sought to educate, advocate, and fundraise with the goal of ending heart disease. 

As Jones stated on the website https://www.yourethecure.org/advocate_spotlight_mallory_jones, “As a health ambassador with the AHA, I have worked directly with legislators, testified before the House Health Services Committee, and supported initiatives like House Bill 11, which raises the minimum age for purchasing tobacco products to 21. I also played a small part in the passage of HB169, expanding the requirement for Cardiac Emergency Response Plans and AEDs to elementary schools and securing $2.5 million in funding for the AED Fund.'” 

A talented singer, Jones has performed the national anthem at numerous venues and also sang “Blue Moon of Kentucky” during the talent portion of Miss Kentucky’s Teen competition, for which she won first place. 

Among many additional awards and honors, Jones has served as a Sixth Congressional District Youth Ambassador for Congressman Andy Barr, participated in the Governor’s Scholar program at Centre College, received the Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership Award, and much more. 

She’s also president of GRC’s beta club, vice president of student council, and captain of the mock trial team. 

Future plans include representing Kentucky as a youth leader in October’s Town Meeting on Tomorrow conference in Missouri and hosting the Heart of a Champion Golf Classic, which will benefit the American Heart Association, at Winchester Country Club on Saturday, Nov. 2. 

More information can be learned at https://heart-of-a-champion-golf-classic.perfectgolfevent.com. 

While a college choice is undecided at the moment, Jones has shown interest in working in the legal field. 

With such accomplishments having been made and more on the horizon, hopes are high for Mallory Jones’s future and opportunities. 

“We’re really proud,” said Jones Irwin.