You could call Chantea McIntyre the mother of all multi-hyphenates. She’s a wife to her college-sweetheart husband Michael, with whom she has three kids ages 5, 2, and 4 months. She’s also a full-time biology teacher, a pageant queen and owner of her own modeling agency in Fresno. And if that wasn’t enough, she recently started her own pageant and will be going for a master’s degree in the fall.
Competing for Miss Fresno County in 2004 wasn’t necessarily in the plan for McIntyre, who was a basketball player for Fresno State at the time. But when injuries kept her off the court, she decided to throw on a dress and compete for the crown. She ended up winning that pageant and would win again 10 years later, being crowned Mrs. California in 2014. For McIntyre, when things aren’t going well in other areas of her life, she turns to pageants.
McIntyre’s run for Mrs. California was driven by her struggle with infertility. She ended up winning that title on the same night the adoption of her son was finalized. And the next day she discovered she was pregnant with her third child. McIntyre went on to compete in the Mrs. United States pageant, where she was 4th runner up, while in her first trimester.
For the time being, McIntyre is focusing on her fledging pageant, Central Valley Pageants, and her expanding modeling agency. Oh, and that master’s degree. Her advice to women who want to do it all is this:
1. There are enough hours in the day, you just have to make the most of your time.
2. Don’t listen to the negative voice in your head saying you can’t do it, because it will stop you from trying. As her mother used to say, “Don’t block the blessing.”
Here, McIntyre talks about how basketball and pageants aren’t that different (except for the outfits), why she’s driven to do so much and her future pageant plans.
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