Theresa Vail: Miss Kansas Considered Suicide After Relentless Bullying

Theresa Vail was this year’s Miss Kansas, making headlines in the Miss America contest for her unusual background and willingness to show off her tattoos.

But behind the pageant, the 22-year-old blonde said she had a painful past that included bullying so relentless that she once considered taking her life.

Vail recalled when she was 10 years old, facing bullies who aimed at tearing her down.

“I’d been bullied pretty much consistently up to that point,” said Vail, who is enlisted in the Army. “We lived in Germany at the time and it got so bad that I nearly took my own life. Thank God it was my Dad who saved me. I remember I didn’t know the words of the Serenity Prayer at that point but I knew what I wanted to say to God, which was, help me find peace in these things that they’re making fun of me for, because I can’t change them, but on the other hand I also prayed for courage to just stand up for myself and change things that I really could.”

Vail held onto the words of the Serenity Prayer, and later decided to have them tattooed down her side. She would add another tattoo — the army dental insignia on her left shoulder blade — and this year became the first contestant ever to openly display her ink.

Miss Kansas said she wanted to enter pageants so she could help empower others.

“We all face challenges in society,” Theresa Vail said. “We’re placed under certain convictions and we feel we have to stay under them and I want people to know, it doesn’t matter what society says. It doesn’t matter what the quote, unquote rules say. You can do whatever you want, whatever you set your mind to, that’s what I did when I showed my tattoos.”