Queen aims for statewide royalty after capturing Austin title

Recently crowned Miss Austin USA of 2008, Atia Willis has proved that she is Austin royalty.

Willis attends Austin Community Colleges' Riverside Campus and majors in Marketing with hopes to transfer to the University of Texas.

A native of Houston, Willis worked her way up from adolescent pageantry to the title of calling herself a "Miss."

Growing up in a hard working family gave Willis the inspiration to obtain the crown, and according to Willis "the most excitement, after winning, is getting the wake up call, telling you your responsibilities, and knowing that this is a job more than anything."

The 19 year-old has definitely made her mark in Austin's history by becoming the first African American to earn the title of Miss Austin.

"I feel I put a lot of hope into all girls of every race…I'm not your average American beauty," Willis said.

Willis also spends a lot of time at ACC's Riverside Campus. She explained that college has been a very good experience for her, "I love ACC because of the diversity and the passionate people."

As far as her education and some of her inspiration, Willis commented that she is "constantly in the learning lab trying to get help, but you know who inspires me, the deaf."

While she works on her career as a television anchorwoman, Willis has made it clear that she wants to learn how to sign to assist the deaf and she stated that "all of the deaf students are so sweet, they work hard, and they have inspired me to want to sign."

Willis also competed in the Miss Texas USA Pageant this summer and she explained that "it was a wake up call. It's much more intense. Backstage there were girls crying, mothers crying, and even cat-fights. It was chaos, but good chaos."

The beauty queen won the hearts of Austin and hopes to win the hearts of Texas in the Miss Texas USA 2010 competition.

Her duties as the pageant winner begin in December, and she works closely with ACC's Riverside Student Life appearing at different banquets and award ceremonies as Miss Austin USA.

Commenting on her recent pageant experiences and looking forward to future competitions Willis had this to say, "Miss Texas is pretty political, but it's because the girls have competed multiple times and the judges know them. My goal for next year is at least to make top 15, but this year I did win Miss Congeniality. I was happy because that's an award chosen by the girls."