Thursday, March 28, 2024

Former Miss USA Cheslie Kryst Penned Candid Essay About Aging, Pageants and Trolls

Cheslie Kryst
Cheslie Kryst / Twitter

*Cheslie Kryst, a former Miss USA winner, ended her life on Sunday by allegedly jumping from a Manhattan high-rise.

We previously reported that Kryst, 30, was not only the 2019 pageant winner but a lawyer as well. She is said to have jumped from the 60-story Orion building at 350 W. 42nd St. around 7:15 am NYC time on Jan. 30, and was found dead in the street below, the NY Post reports.

The former Miss USA, who had a unit on the ninth floor of the building, was alone when she jumped and was last seen on a 29th-floor terrace, sources told the news outlet.

“Cheslie wasn’t just my daughter; she was my best friend,” Kryst’s mom, April Simpkins, told Gayle King on Monday. 

“Months earlier, Cheslie had told me the exact same thing: Her mother was her best friend,” King wrote in an essay published Tuesday.

Kryst opened up in an essay last year in which she discussed her struggle with turning 30, her pageant journey, and dealing with trolls on the internet.

READ MORE: Cheslie Kryst: Former Miss USA Ends Life by Jumping Off NYC High-Rise | VIDEO

“Each time I say ‘I’m turning 30,’ I cringe a little,” Kryst wrote in the Allure essay published on March 4 and titled “A Pageant Queens Reflects on Turning 30.”

“Society has never been kind to those growing old, especially women. (Occasional exceptions are made for some of the rich and a few of the famous),” Kryst wrote.

“Turning 30 feels like a cold reminder that I’m running out of time to matter in society’s eyes — and it’s infuriating,” she added.

In the essay, which was published just weeks before her 30th birthday on April 28, Kryst reflected on aging.

“After a year like 2020, you would think we’d learned that growing old is a treasure and maturity is a gift not everyone gets to enjoy.” Kryst wrote.

Speaking about her Miss USA win in 2019, Kryst said “my reign ignited a heightened desire to commit myself to passion, intent, and authenticity.”

She said noted that “pageant girls” are “supposed to be model-tall and slender, don bouffant hair, and have a killer walk.”

“But my five-foot-six frame won with six-pack abs, earned after years of competing in Division I Track and Field, and a head of natural curls in a time when generations of Black women have been taught that being ‘too Black’ would cost them wins in the boardroom and on pageant stages,” she said.

Kryst said her “challenge of the status quo certainly caught the attention” of internet trolls.

“I can’t tell you how many times I have deleted comments on my social media pages that had vomit emojis and insults telling me I wasn’t pretty enough to be Miss USA or that my muscular build was actually a ‘man body,'” she said.

“And that was just my looks. My opinions, on the other hand, were enough to make a traditional pageant fan clutch their pearls,” she added.

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