The new Miss Michigan, Elizabeth Wertenberger, said she hopes her struggles with a chronic illness, and how she overcame them to represent her state in the Miss America pageant, will be an inspiration to struggling children.
At age 13, Wertenberger was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disorder where the body attacks the joints and sometimes other organs. She said for a time she was taking 13 pills a day to get her condition under control, and she later had to undergo chemotherapy, which damaged her kidneys.
“The doctor said ‘Elizabeth, I don’t mean to scare you, but there’s no way you should be walking right now,’” Wertenberger said. “They told me I’d never be in remission. I’m in complete remission.”
Now, she said she hopes to use the Miss America organization’s partnership with Children’s Miracle Network to give other ill children hope.
“When the doctors didn’t have hope for me, I still had hope,” she said.
Wertenberger credits her passion for dance for helping to save her mobility. It was a passion she decided to share with the elderly when she started volunteering as a teenager.
That led to her platform’s focus on youth volunteering with the elderly.
“We have a lot to learn from one another,” she said. “I think we need to take advantage of (lessons from the elderly) while we have them here.”
She also plans to speak out about cyberbullying because of her experience in recent years. A sports gossip website posted rumors about her love life after she started dating University of Michigan quarterback Tate Forcier.
“I think it’s important that we speak out against it and we use the Internet for positive things,” she said. “I think so many people deal with that on a day-to-day basis. It’s sad. It’s absolutely sad.”
She competed as Miss Southwest this year and as Miss Monroe County in 2008, when she finished as second runner-up. She then took a year off to focus on school and work, but realized how much the Miss Michigan title meant to her.
“I was able to realize how important this organization was to my life. I realized this chronic illness didn’t just happen to me, that it wasn’t just a fluke,” she said. “I had a message to share.”
She recently graduated from Kendall College of Art and Design with a degree in interior design and a concentration in graphics. Her goal is to someday own a design company that integrates graphics and interior designs to help companies strengthen their brands.
Wertenberger said part of her personal brand is that she doesn’t fit the pageant “mold.”
“They don’t define who I am,” she said. “I’m not trying to fit in. I’d rather be myself and stand out.”