Rio Rancho girl is Miss NM Jr. Pre-Teen

She is beauty, she is grace and she is from Rio Rancho.

Autumn Rodriguez, a student at Stapleton Elementary, is 2024's Miss New Mexico Jr. Pre-Teen.

"I went to Colorado to compete for Miss New Mexico," she said.

Rodriguez had to prove her worth in the pageant by going through a series of categories.

"I did formal wear, casual wear. I did in show and I did an introduction. I got to go on stage at the very end and do a little dance," she explained.

She was surprised that she was named Miss New Mexico Jr. Pre-Teen though.

"It was me against this other girl. I did not expect I was going to win until they called my name, and I won. I was so excited and so shocked. That was my first pageant I have ever won," she said excitedly.

Her favorite part was parading with her dad on stage.

"I loved that my dad got to come on stage and got to walk me, and I love how you could just take your time and you get to have your time on stage. I love that we all get to wear these big, puffy dresses," she said.

She first was interested in pageant life when she went to her older sister's pageant in Arizona.

"She was so pretty and everything she did, she inspired me to want to do a pageant, too. So then I did an interview on the phone and I got to go to the state pageant. I was so excited that this is going to be my first pageant when I was older, and I was hoping I would win," she said.

And she did just that. However, the important part of Rodriguez's pageant campaign was her platform.

"Every year, my birthday, my mom makes me feel special with a decorated table, lots of balloons, but most importantly a cake. I realized not everyone gets to feel as special as I do, so I made a birthday blessing in a box filled with all the things you need to have a magical birthday. I plan on giving them to the homeless community, the children the children's home and the military families because my dad's in the military, and I think everyone deserves to feel as special as I do on my birthday," she said.

"Even if they don't have a home, I want them to still feel as special on their birthdays or some other things like a party. I still want everyone to feel special. Not just me. I want all the children in the children's home to feel special, too, because they might not have a mom or dad to make them feel special at all."

She also wants to help sloths, which she says are endangered.

"I would love to bring awareness to the sloths. Sloths are becoming endangered, and the three-toed pygmy sloth is on its way to becoming extinct. So I would love to bring awareness to sloths, and to people, please stop cutting down our trees because sloths are too slow to save themselves. I would not like to have the world with no sloths," she said.

She says if sloths aren't around to carry avocado seeds long distances, avocados would not exist either.

The other reason she hopes they are saved is because she wants to work with animals one day.

"I would really love to be a wildlife veterinarian, caring for sloths and other animals, maybe like lions or tigers. It would be so cool to help every single animal I can. I love animals so much, so I would love to help them but, most importantly, I would love to help the sloth," she said.

Besides animals and pageant life, she also finds joy in soccer and gymnastics.

"I like to go to soccer practice most of the time, and I like to guard the goal when I play, and I really love doing gymnastics. My favorite part is the beam. I'm really good at it. I can do jumps on the beam, but it's really hard to try to balance on it because you can fall so easily," she said.

Soccer is her passion, though. Her favorite player is Alex Morgan, a United States women's player who recently stepped back from the sport. Rodriguez hopes to be a pro player like her one day.

"I think pageants are important to try your best, just have fun, just be happy with who you are and make new friends," she said.

"We have to buy a lot of dresses. We have a lot already at our house, and our grandma's letting us use her little clothes rack. I already have, like, a thousand dresses in there and you can't find one, then we have a new one coming in soon," she said.

She also commented on the speech portion of the contest.

"We have to talk for a minute instead of 30 seconds, so I have to have a longer intro and expand it," she said.

Rodriguez has not lost her humility through the pageant and encourages little girls everywhere to have confidence.

"I like to watch my big sister do pageants and everyone else who comes on, because I think it's really fun to watch other people. When I was at my other pageant, I would cheer for everyone. I would make sure no one felt sad, so I would cheer for everyone that came on," she said.

Her next pageant is in November.

"I'm very excited. I can't wait to go to Florida and really excited to spend a day in Disney World," she said.

"I'm going to have a different intro, and I'm going to try to speak a little louder than I did last time."