Interview with Catherine Liang, Miss California 2022

Interview with Catherine Liang, Miss California 2022

November 23, 2022
By Kimberly Vernon

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Classically trained pianist, Summa Cum Laude USC graduate, private wealth analyst, and all-around ray of sunshine! Catherine Liang, Miss California 2022, is truly a woman who can do it all. Catherine has built a personal lifestyle business founded on the four pillars of fitness, fashion, food, and finance and continues to inspire others to be a “Champion of Courage”

Kimberly: Hi, everyone! And welcome to our Queenly Tea Talk, so we're here today with Catherine, our current Miss California in the Miss America Organization. So Catherine is super humble, but go ahead and introduce yourselves, tell us about your schooling, your background, and also your platform?

Catherine: Well hi everyone, my name is Catherine, and I am so honored to be your Miss California for this year in the Miss America organization. I am what you call a born and bred Californian girl! I grew up in the wine country of Sonoma county, and then I went to my University of Southern California or USC, (Go Trojans!) down in SoCal. And now, I'm back up in the Bay Area working as a private wealth analyst.

Kimberly: Yes she is a Bay Area girl, and for those who don’t know, Queenly is also located in the San Francisco Bay area. So, we got to do an in-person at Tea Talk today! And so Catherine, your platform or social impact initiative is “Being a Champion of Courage.” Can you tell me more about that and also the background of why this became your platform?

Champions of Courage is this idea  that every single person can become their own superhero

Catherine: The premise of Champions of Courage is this idea that every single person can become their own superhero. I think a lot of the time, especially in this remote world, where we look to celebrities or influencers to be that hero for us. But my goal is to really help every single person realize their own potential of becoming their own superhero and always every single day have the option to choose courage over fear.

And this was really rooted in a personal journey. So for Northern California folks, you might know this, but we actually experienced a pretty bad fire in 2017 called the Tubbs Fire. And my hometown of Sonoma County was one of the most impacted by it. So unfortunately, like many of my friends, I lost my home and hometown in that fire. And this was actually one month after moving to USC. So I went from being so excited in a brand new environment and experiencing a whole new life, to not really knowing where to go back home for Thanksgiving. And then one month after that, actually two days before Thanksgiving, I went to the hospital and then was diagnosed with something called Hashimoto's disease. And it's kind of a weird term, but it's essentially an autoimmune disorder where your body does not produce the thyroid, your most important hormone. And it's like this butterfly gland right in your neck, and it controls your metabolism, your ability to think clearly, your energy levels.

Opening a water bottle like an arrowhead one would be super, super difficult for me. And sitting up straight and holding my fork at the dinner table was pretty tough. So I just kind of realized, you know, I didn’t want to be defined for the rest of my life as someone with health inhibition and someone who had lost your home. Because as crass as it may sound, everyone goes through difficult challenges at some point. So I decided to become my own hero for myself and heal all of the, I guess you could say, trauma in a way.

Catherine: Over the pandemic, I ended up building a personal brand rooted in four Fs. I would say it's fitness, fashion, food, and finance, because I really wanted to show, you know, even if you might come from a pretty hard background or you have like something that you had to dealt with in terms of fear, every single person is capable of becoming their most holistic, and well-rounded self. So I'm here to show all girl bosses that you can do anything and everything that you want to.

Kimberly: The four Fs are food, finance, fitness, and fashion. What's your favorite of those four?
Catherine: Ooh, I want to say food because I’m a bay area girl!
Kimberly: Same same!

Catherine: But I would say the first one was primarily fitness, because I don't know if many of you guys did this over the pandemic, but Chloe Ting and Pamela Reif were my go to for at-home workouts. But I really just kind of wanted to design something that catered to what I like to do, which is like HIT and cardio. And honestly, I was pretty shy about it because I was not a big Instagram/social media person at the start of this, but I started posting stories about my daily workouts and what my nutrition was like dealing with Hashimoto's.

Kimberly: That’s so cool! I remember following you and thinking “Wow she’s so fit!”

Catherine: Aw! And then posting reels and then doing almost like layout guides of like eight different workouts that you can do in a circuit. And then one of my guy friends just reached out to just like, “This is so great, but can you do something that's more like in time that I can follow along with? So can you do some YouTube videos?” And I was like, “I don't know how to edit a YouTube video!” but I think that really challenged me to just like, try it because like I had a lot more time with remote learning. So yeah, I'm so grateful to my friends for kind of like pushing me out of my own comfort zone.

Kimberly: We love that! All right, let's talk about Miss America, because it's around the corner in three weeks! When will you leave for Miss America?
Catherine: I leave December 8th and we’re actually headed to New York first before we head to Connecticut.
Kimberly: How are you feeling? If you could describe how you feel about Miss America being so soon in just three words, what words would those be?

Catherine: Terrified, utterly excited, and honored. I was just talking to one of the founders of Queenly earlier, and it's just so surreal because, Miss America is like one of these pipe dreams that you have as a kid where it's like, “oh, I want to grow up and be a fairy or a fairy/astronaut/scientist!” As a little girl, I never, ever thought I would ever go into a pageant much less Miss America. And then here I am now, two and a half weeks out, about to pack up my whole life and go over to Connecticut.

Kimberly: So this isn't your first time competing in the Miss America Organization or pageantry in general, tell us about your journey through not only Miss America, but pageantry, too!

Catherine: Yeah. So I actually started in the Miss America organization when I was 14 years old. Like many of you guys, I probably was a pretty awkward teenager. I was what I consider very much a tomboy, and I used to be much more focused on athletics. So I was a competitive surfer, but I also did ballet and played classical piano.

Catherine:I don't know, I was a very hyperactive kid! I was like, I need to put my energy somewhere. But I really struggled with public speaking and I mean to the degree of not even being able to pick up a phone and calling someone else on the other side because I don't know why, just by hearing my own voice reverberate to the other end... I was just kind of unnerved by that. But my parents said, “you know what? One day you're going to have to talk to real people in the real world!” So they're like, “why don't you give pageants a try? Because you have the other phases of competition. So you might as well just work on the interview and on-stage questions.” Plus scholarship money's always a plus when college tuition is growing every single day.

And so in 2014, I got to represent my hometown of Sonoma County, as Miss Sonoma County’s Outstanding Teen! And I had the opportunity to go to Miss California's Outstanding Teen and I made Top Ten! To be honest, I had no idea what I was doing! I was like “This world is so cool!” I actually met one of my best friends, her name is Kiannah Dole and she's actually Miss Yorba Linda this year and she was Miss Yorba Linda’s Outstanding Teen in 2014! Then I took a little bit of a break because while I know it is pretty common to go back to pageants each year, I felt like I just was not mature enough to come back into the program. So I wanted to focus on 1. My academics and 2. On this idea of being a global citizen because I love traveling abroad and I wanted to be almost like a culture ambassador in bridging together different parts of the world. So flash forward to USC when I entered in 2017, I decided as a last minute hail mary to enter into a program called Miss Los Angeles Chinatown. I am from Sonoma County, so it's very much a Caucasian neighborhood. So going to school where 38% of the population is international Asian was actually quite a culture shock for me. But I love the experience because I got to represent such an incredible community and a rich heritage based in Los Angeles.

But for those of you who don't know, I actually had the opportunity to fly all the way to Hong Kong and represent Los Angeles at Miss Chinese International and then go on a month-long business culture exchange tour in mainland China. So that was really the essence of that idea of being a global citizen and getting to use my platform for something good! Then I took a bit more of a break, went into “pageant retirement,” but I knew that I always, always, always wanted to try to give Miss California one last shot. And then low and behold, I entered into the program, literally sent to my application two months before the actual program. So like a couple days before the deadline, then I became Miss San Francisco, then I met this lovely woman on the Miss California stage, and then got to wear a shiny new hat!

Kimberly: So exciting! So again, Catherine is one of the most humble people I know, and one fun fact about her at Miss California was she swept every single prelim! She was our talent prelim winner, our evening gown prelim winner, our interview prelim winner. So she is a 10/10 star! And at Queenly we are all about dresses! Tell us about your Miss California dress, how you went about choosing that, and how you felt wearing it during the red carpet.

Blog image on Queenly

Catherine: I'll be honest, when I went to Miss California, I listened very much to my local director, Michelle. She is such a gem. I thought I wanted something that was super, you know, glittery and old Hollywood. Then I ended up going to a pop up store based in Novato, and it was called Hello Gorgeous. And the dress owner was super kind! And she had so many beautiful selections. I tried out a bunch of super elaborate dresses that had high slits and gorgeous trains and every single possible color and sequin you could imagine. And one dress that I kind of overlooked the first time I was getting in a room was I thought it was all too simple.

But then I tried it on, and more than anything, it was just so comfortable! It was like “Oh, this is like pajamas!” It was such a subtly surprising gown! The front side is very simple and it just has a few mirage cutouts in the side. So it really accentuates your waist. And then the back side I think is the most fun because the tail, it opens up into almost what I consider like a gingko leaf shape. And then it had that same kind of lacy factor in it. So you can kind of see my legs when I turned around. But I just thought it was such a stark contrast from a lot of the dresses that I had been saving on Pinterest and on Instagram. So I knew going with that, honestly, I had some questions. I was like,”did I make the right choice?” But I was so glad I did because I just felt confident in it at the end of the day.

Kimberly: I remember there was some social media interview or post you did where you described your sense of style as “timeless elegance” And that dress truly is, “timeless elegance.” Like ten years from now, you’ll look back and think “wow, this is still a classic, beautiful gown!”

Catherine: Yeah, it's definitely a dress I've kept in my wardrobe, and that's kind of like just finding staple pieces that I can repeat every once in a while because I am notoriously lazy and honestly have no clue about fashion. I'm just like, “oh, it looks nice!” But yeah, it's just I love that gown so much.

Kimberly: So without giving too much away, what can we expect for your Miss America dress?

Catherine: Ooh, something very similar to my black dress that I wore for Miss California. You might actually have seen a video on Pageant Planet, they're so kind enough to actually repost that and share three tips that I learned through going through the experience of being a scholarship titleholder! But with a little fun twist, I would say it gives the essence of a beautiful white Christmas and snowfall.

Kimberly: Love that! What about your other Miss America outfits? What are you most excited to wear aside from your evening gown? Because I know that's always a big one.

Catherine: Yeah. So actually, all my wardrobe is very, very special to me. I knew that going into this experience was definitely, at its core, a once in a lifetime experience. You could only go to Miss America once. And so, of course, I had to loop in my wonderful sister-in-law, who is Lindsay Rapp. She actually owns an art gallery and she does everything related to oceans, muses, and she really focuses on women empowerment. And she was, of course, the person that I wanted to consult for designing my dress. So both my talent and my evening gown are dresses that she quite literally digitally drew on Photoshop. And we took two different pieces of dress that I’ve worn in the past and combined it into what I consider like the perfect gowns. So I was very excited to wear those pieces because they're really an homage to how much I love my sister-in-law.

Kimberly: So wholesome! Let's talk about the upcoming Miss America pageant. What does your Miss America preparation look like?

Catherine: Oh, my gosh, a lot of coffee! I'm very blessed to be in the Bay Area with so many people that, you know, have really just invested their time into this process. And I would say, the best part of this job is being able to bring people on the journey because, you know, there’s one girl wearing the crown, but you are representing an entire state, an entire community that has a dream, the American dream. So I've been definitely doing a lot of interview practice. Thank you to all my coaches who deal with my 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. calls and oh gosh, they are the best! Actually, yesterday I submitted all of my Miss America scholarship essays. Actually, if you watch my evening gown walk from Miss California, I actually learned that from a good friend who is an elementary school teacher. So I literally went back to school to learn how to walk properly. And I did it in Sutro Elementary's kids library. It was just very nostalgic and like, it just kind of brought me back to my own, like hunky dory roots.

Kimberly: For the Miss America organization, the phases of competition are the red carpet, on-stage question, interview, talent, and social impact pitch. What is your favorite phase of competition?

Catherine: Talent! My piano piece, I am a classically trained pianist, and I will be playing Fantasy Impromptu by Frederic Chopin. But with a fun twist because the back half of the song is actually something my dear piano teacher of over 12 years, hand wrote. She did it on the back of a piece of scratch paper. And for any musician, you know, it is painstakingly difficult for an artist to write every single note out. But that song is an homage to her. And I think it just really encapsulates the essence of my artistic style.

Kimberly: I can't wait to watch it, you are going to be fantastic, I already know! So is there anything else you want to share about your journey to Miss America, your experience as Miss California, what you've learned in the past five months?

Catherine: Honestly, I think it really goes back to what Queenly’s mission is to empower women and to empower every single person that you're around. Obviously, you know, pageants and scholarship programs give women the opportunity to showcase that they can be a total boss girl, like I can be a girl in corporate finance, but I can also be someone who wears a crown and sash. And I just love that there are so many platforms out there that really promote that idea. But moreover, this idea of using your platform to positively influence people. Because, you know, even if I don't have hundreds of millions of followers on TikTok or Instagram, anything that I post or anything that I say potentially has the influence to hopefully inspire your girl, realizing that she can be her own champion of courage one day. So I think it's just a great reminder to us all that, you know, we come into this world with an amazing opportunity to hopefully shed a little sunlight into someone else's life. So in the words of my mom, “have an open heart, have an open mind, and strive to be the sunshine in other people's life.”

Kimberly: Love that! That's a great note to end this interview on. So thank you for joining our Tea Talk! When is this America again and how can people support you?

Catherine: It is December 12th and 13th for prelims and. 15th is our finals. So you'll see the top 11 and it will be live streamed. Can also give a shout out to our amazing host?

Kimberly: Oh, my God, thank you and thanks everyone who tuned in to catch this!
Catherine: Thank you!!
Follow along Catherine's journey through her Instagram @catherine_y_liang and @missamericaca
To learn more about the Miss California Scholarship program please visit: misscalifornia.org.

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