Rochester teen takes 1st runner-up at Nationals at Florida beauty pageant

Lexi Taylor (Courtesy photo/Stacia Brochu)

Rochester's 16-year-old beauty pageant phenom continued her success last month placing second in her first Nationals Pageant in Orlando, Fla.

Lexi Taylor represented her title as the 2018 Miss NH USA Ambassador Teen with pride and poise, a press release on her behalf noted.

Taylor flew into Florida on July 22 and right away began giving back, volunteering for 3-plus hours at the Make-A-Wish Give Kids The World Village in Orlando with a few other USA Ambassador contestants.

She helped prepare more than 80 homemade pillows for children visiting the village. The week was packed with activities including a trip to Busch Gardens, a Lulu Party and a Big Brother Big Sister Charity Auction Event.
"Lexi felt like a princess when she walked in her evening gown onstage Thursday evening," the press release noted. She competed on Friday in USA Fashion, five Onstage Optionals and, three Offstage Optionals. Her two talents included a vocal performance and a Modern / Acro Dance. She participated in Fab/Fitness and Runway.

Taylor put herself and her state in the spotlight during her speech performance in the spokesmodel portion of the competition, speaking about why New Hampshire is a beautiful place to have a vacation.

Off stage Taylor competed in Best in Class, Natural and Glam Photogenic. She received awards for four optionals. She placed 1st Runner Up in Natural Photogenic, 1st Runner Up in Talent, National Winner in Best in Class and National Winner in Spokesmodel.
On July 29 Taylor held her own during some intense interviews with five separate judges with impressive resumes. The interviews were each three minutes in length.

Before the final show July 31, she told her mom, Stacia Brochu, who made the trip to Florida with her, that she wanted to make them proud and didn't want to disappoint her dad, Doug Brochu Jr., who had worked two jobs to sponsor her at the pageant.

When the top five were named Taylor was surprised to hear her name. From then on they called out names one by one, fourth runner up, third runner up, second runner up ... then there she stood holding hands with one other contestant Miss New Jersey Teen, the press release said.

Taylor said she "was so overjoyed" to take 1^st runner up.