Justus Kelley has spoken out about the grueling, nap-time schedule that carried her to the Miss USA crown.
Kelley, 31, who competed as Miss Virginia USA 2026, won the 75th national pageant in Miami on Aug. 27, succeeding last year’s winner, Audrey Eckert, 24. She is the first mother and first married woman ever to hold the title, a milestone made possible after the organization opened competition to married women and mothers in 2023.
“My pageant prep, it did look different,” Kelley said. “I’m not going to pretend like I was able to dedicate the same amount of time as what I did in the past. I had to get creative. Their nap time was my prep time. It was late nights. It was after the bath and bed routine. I did walking classes with my baby on my chest, in his carrier. I did squats in my living room while holding my two-year-old. I practiced interview questions while feeding my toddler.”
The foster mom of two said she shut out social media and television, replacing scrolling and shows with floor workouts squeezed between childcare duties. “I love abductor and adductor exercises, something that I usually do on a machine at the gym,” she explained. “But if I can’t make it to the gym, I’m just lying on the floor, elevating my leg and mirroring what I would’ve done on that machine.”
Her husband, a consultant she met in college, became an unlikely pageant strategist. “The crown might be his because all he keeps saying is, ‘I can’t believe I’m Mr. USA,'” Kelley said with a laugh. “I’m like, ‘Babe, I don’t know if that might be trademarked. Stop saying that!'” The couple has been together for 13 years and married for nine. “He’s been calling himself my pageant consultant,” she added. “But he’s been a huge help in getting me to this point.”
Kelley’s core routine turned ordinary moments into training sessions. “I really focused on core,” she said. “So a lot of times you’ll find me at home in the living room. I might be watching a movie or doing some self-care, but I am on the floor crunching it out during that movie, saying, ‘Let’s try to get through this whole scene doing crunches,’ and then you pause.”
The victory carries particular weight given the pageant’s history with married mothers. In 1957, Maryland’s Mary Leona Gage was crowned Miss USA but stripped of the title the following day after organizers discovered she was married and the mother of two sons. The competition, which began in 1952 in Long Beach, California, remained closed to women like Gage for decades.
Kelley wants her reign to challenge what she sees as a false choice facing women. “You don’t have to choose one part of who you are,” she said. “You can be all of who you are. That, to me, is the message. We can embrace every part of who we are. It doesn’t take away from the other. It doesn’t mean there aren’t trade-offs, and there aren’t times when we have to lean on our village more heavily to get through all the things that we may be pursuing. But know that we don’t have to sacrifice ourselves.”
The win comes with a prize package valued at more than $685,000, including a $150,000 salary, a Range Rover, a one-year lease at a luxury Miami apartment, a Westgate Vacation Home Club membership, and a $30,000 Miss Universe wardrobe. Kelley had immediate practical concerns about the vehicle. “The prize that made me go, ‘Wow, and I have some questions,’ was knowing that the Range Rover is a part of traveling in style even after your year as Miss USA,” she said. “I think that’s huge. But my first question was, ‘Does it fit car seats?'”
She sees the history-making victory as extending beyond herself. “Knowing that history was made as the first mom, as the first wife, as the first woman in her 30s, my first thought was how amazing it is to get to do this and to represent women from all over the country, from all over the world that resonate with, ‘Hey, we’re still dreaming,'” Kelley shared. “We’re raising our families, but we still have dreams. We still have things that we want to go after and pursue. But what an honor. I get to do this. I get to represent these women. What an honor.”
There were moments of exhaustion. “There were days when I wished I could just take the entire day to dedicate to pageant prep, but that’s not where I am,” Kelley said. “That’s not the season of life that I’m in. And we made it work, and my family was fully on board with this experience. They know that they’re along for the journey; they’re along for this ride with me.”
Kelley will represent the United States at Miss Universe 2026 in Puerto Rico.