What are your hobbies?
I enjoy singing, dancing, horseback riding and fishing with my younger brother Jameson.

What makes you special and unique?
The Gift of Gab! I believe we all have special gifts that make us unique in our own way. I am blessed to be able to communicate easily with people of all ages!

What is the best advice you have ever received?
The best advice I ever received came from my mom who always says "Don�t focus on what you can�t control" that�s her way of saying that life will sometimes hand you a lemon and you just might have to make lemonade.

Name one thing you cannot live without.
My Family!!! They are my support system and are always there for me in everything I do.

What is the most valuable lesson you ever learned?
Learning to take constructive criticism, whether it's a college professor critiquing a report that has taken me weeks to write or preparing for pageant competition. Some of the most important changes in my life have come from listening to those that have my best interest at heart.

Who is your most valued role model and why?
Without a doubt, my mom. She continues to be the greatest influence in my life! I know if I can be half the wife she has been to my dad and half the mother she has been to my brother and me, I will be a successful person.

What was your most unexpected moment?
Being asked to play Cinderella at a childs birthday party was totally unexpected. Beside the fact that I have blonde hair, I never really saw myself as "Cinderella-like". I was able to ride into the party in a real carriage. Not to mention, to make the character more authentic I cut my bangles straight across to give myself that royal look.

What is your workout routine?
That would be the "Joy Personal Workout Routine" it's a lifestyle that fits me for me. It consists of low fat foods and salads, which I love! An active lifestyle is important which includes playing a little three-on-three basketball with my friends. I don't deprive myself of sweet treats I just use a little self control.

What has been your biggest accomplishment to date?
I feel my biggest accomplishment has been setting my moral standards high and sticking by them through college. I believe this makes me a good role model for many young people. Being in college, I understand the desire to fit in, but I can show young people especially young girls it's not impossible to have fun and fit in without compromising their moral standards.

What is the best compliment you have ever received?
That I'm a loyal friend; my family reared me to believe that in order to have a good friend, you have to be a good friend.

What is your secret wish?
Now, come on... if I told you it wouldn't be a secret anyone?!

What was your most embarrassing moment?
OK, we've all seen the pageant contestant that recently bombed her onstage question on national television ...Well let's just say I had a moment like that once. I hope it never makes it to YouTube.

What is your biggest guilty pleasure?
Sunflower seeds! Yum! Yum! My mom says they are disgusting and bad for my teeth.

What is your favorite movie and why?
Gone with the Wind! I like to think of myself as a modern day Southern Belle of the New South. I personally love the way they dressed and I dream of being Scarlett.

What is your favorite color and why?
Yellow, it's the color of happiness. I feel it fits my personality perfectly. I'm usually the person cracking jokes and making people smile.

What do you like to do for fun... relaxation... recreation?
I love to be outside � maybe at the beach; reading a good book, lying in a lounge chair, wearing a big hat to shade my face from the sun, now that's a little R and R.

What would be your dream vacation or destination?
I want to visit Germany. It's full of history that I've only read about. This country has impacted the world around us for many centuries. From the staging of world wars, the rise and fall of the Berlin wall, to the high cliffs of the Vogtland and Ore mountains. I really hope to visit one day.

What do you like best about your hometown?
Location, Location, Location. My home is Brookhaven, Mississippi, is 55 miles south of the state capital, Jackson, and 130 miles north of the "Big Easy," New Orleans, via Interstate 55. Because of our prime location we are able to experience the finer things a small town has to offer and the ease of traveling to other places.

What do you like best about the state of Mississippi, besides our food & hospitality?
Mississippians! Our people have a sense of resiliency that can not be found anywhere else in the union. These characteristics can be seen in response to natural disasters or even when we rally around Saturdays to cheer on our favorite college football teams. Go DAWGS!

What's in your CD player or on your iPod right now?
If you were to start my car any day of the week it would be no surprise to find any number of Broadway hits playing on my radio. I enjoy Broadway tunes from Phantom of the Opera to Hairspray. Needless to say my taste in music usually drives my friends crazy.

Where do you see yourself in ten years?
In a decade, I hope to behind a news desk reporting the nation's happenings to the world. Watch out Katie Couric! With all this success it will not be complete until I have 2.2 kids, a dog, and a sweet husband who understands my occasional need to go shopping.

Who am I?
At my core, I'm an average everyday person that enjoys the simple things in life. There is nothing more fulfilling than spending precious time with family and friends, around a southern laced dinner table and ringing a cow bell at Mississippi State University football games! I was reared in Brookhaven, MS. I enjoy singing, dancing, horseback riding and fishing with my younger brother Jameson. Having that close relationship with my family has prepared me to take on the world. I am very blessed to have a loving family that supports me in all my endeavors. I'm really just a Mississippi- girl who has always wanted to be Miss America.

Tell us about your occupational experience.
n/a

Tell us about your platform.
With pride and honor, My father has been to war twice in my young lifetime. It was one of the hardest things my family has ever had to do. If it had not been for our close knit relationship with family and friends, it would have been a lonely and depressing time to make it through.

More frequent and longer deployments are becoming customary in today�s military. As a result, military families find themselves adjusting their lifestyle to accommodate these changes. As one of the 155,000 youth who experience a parent being deployed during wartime, I fostered an outreach program to ensure the psychological and emotional stability of a solders family.

I know how the families and children of deployed soldiers feel. Through my platform �Helping Soldiers at War and the Children They Leave Behind�, I provide support for military families. During deployments, it is especially important that military children and their parents have access to support and informational resources. Through my website www.joypowell.homestead.com and other national organizations I have partnered with help find resources that focus on the special needs children have when a parent is deployed.

Creating opportunities for the parent-child relationship to stay intact and grow, especially during a deployment, is critical. I hope to provide support and encouragement to families, meet needs and reduce the stress and challenges of being a military child.