Madison Thompson is on a mission. The newly crowned USA National Miss Ohio Teen is using her platform as a pageant queen to help rescue children and adults from human trafficking.
Accidental Pageant Queen
Maddie, a 2021 Valley graduate, got into the pageant world by accident. When COVID canceled her prom in 2020, she decided to have some fun with some other girls at Henri’s Cloud Nine Dress Shop modeling their prom dresses. What she didn’t realize is that they were actually being judged for prizes and she ended up winning the title of Henri’s Cloud Nine Queen.
She wasn’t particularly interested in the pageant world until she learned she’d won a scholarship and met her pageant coach Rian Kelly Valentine. “I was given a scholarship and a coach, as well as endless support throughout this whole journey. Within a year and a half, my whole life has changed.” Madison went on to become Miss Ohio Teen, the first Southern Ohio resident to wear the crown.
The Tragedy of Human Trafficking
She says a documentary opened her eyes to the tragedy of human trafficking.” My family and I actually watched a documentary by Operation: Underground Rail Road (O.U.R.) called Operation Toussaint. It really opened my eyes to human trafficking- especially when it came to children. I started raising money for them because they are a nonprofit and they travel all over the country saving children from exploitation.”
She’s using her visibility as a pageant queen to raise awareness about the tragedy of modern-day slavery. “I’ve been able to bring about awareness, talk to people in our area that have friends and family that have been trafficked, and have spoken at events about Operation: Underground Railroad. I have been able to raise money to help both locally and nationally, with pageants giving me a larger platform to share my mission.”
Warrior Princess
Madison is currently enrolled at Shawnee State University in Portsmouth studying marketing and communications. She enjoys collecting and reading comic books, especially those featuring her hero and fellow warrior princess, Wonder Woman.
Though she doesn’t plan on taking out the bad guys with a lasso of truth and an invisible plane, she does plan to fight for justice by starting her own non-profit in the future.
She’s been spreading the word about those enslaved in human trafficking by wearing blue for World Wear Blue Day to honor the estimated 22 million people around the globe caught in human trafficking. As this warrior in blue puts it, “When we work together, we can move mountains.”
