Miss New Jersey Elizabeth Mendel, who competed earlier this month in Miss America 2025, has a message for young people who don’t think they can do something: Have confidence in yourself and don’t give up.
At age 16, Mendel was first approached with the idea of competing in a pageant. She was hesitant to become involved.
“I didn’t believe in myself,” said Mendel, now 23, of Cape May Court House.
There was one pageant left in the season in 2018. She decided to enter the local Miss Stars and Stripes’ Outstanding Teen and won.
She competed in Miss New Jersey’s Teen but didn’t win. She graduated from Middle Township High School in 2020.
In August 2022, Mendel was crowned Miss Avalon and was the third runner-up in the 2023 Miss New Jersey competition. She won Miss South Jersey in September 2023 and won Miss New Jersey in June with dance as her talent at Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City.
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Mendel’s community threw her a welcome home parade.
“It was wonderful. Firetrucks and dance studios participated,” Mendel said.
Mendel traveled to Orlando, Florida, to compete in Miss America 2025. The Miss America Competition started in 1921 as an end-of-summer tradition in Atlantic City. It left the resort for Las Vegas in 2005, returned to New Jersey in 2013, then left again for Connecticut in 2019 before relocating to Orlando.
Mendel said she spent part of the night before the first day of competition praying.
“My faith is extremely important to me,” Mendel said. “I also hung out with Miss America contestants, had pizza.”
Mendel’s talent for both Miss New Jersey and Miss America was a lyrical dance to an instrumental rendition of Celine Dion’s “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now.” Mendel’s choreographer was Tiffany DePaul, who works at The Studio @ Cape May Dance Company, owned by Destiny Wilson, in Rio Grande.
In Orlando, Mendel spent one day of the preliminaries competing with her on-stage question, fitness and evening gown. She and all of the other contestants spent the other preliminary day in the talent competition before the Miss America finals.
She finished outside of the top 11 contestants.
Mendel said 53 of her family and friends traveled to Orlando to watch the finals in person. One of those people was Miss New Jersey 2022 Augostina Mallous.
Mallous is one of Mendel’s dearest friends. One year older than Mendel, it was Mallous, a fellow Middle Township graduate, who was sitting on a school bus next to Mendel and brought up the idea of Mendel competing in pageants when they were teenagers.
In preparing for Miss America, you learn about everything, Mallous said. Interview prep is important because you can be asked about anything from current events to your personal life.
Mendel and Mallous are both dancers, but they still had to learn how to walk effortlessly and elegantly in 8-inch heels for the evening gown competition, Mallous said.
“There is no one path to get to the Miss America stage,” said Mallous, now 23 and a resident of Manhattan, New York. She said it brought tears to her eyes watching Mendel compete for Miss America. “I remember feeling this feeling (that Mendel had) two years ago. I’m so excited that she got to feel what I felt. ... I’m so proud of Elizabeth.”
For three of the past four years, Miss New Jersey has come from Cape May County. Besides Mendel and Mallous, Alyssa Sullivan, Miss New Jersey 2021, was a fellow Middle Township graduate.
When Miss New Jersey 2023 Victoria Mozitis, a Northfield resident and Mainland Regional High School graduate, is included, it means the last four Miss New Jerseys all came from South Jersey.
Mendel theorized she and the former Miss New Jerseys developed grit by coming from small, beach-town families.
“We come from families that work hard. We know what it is to put in the work,” she said.
Mendel still has six months left in her reign as Miss New Jersey. She advocates for eating disorder awareness through her service initiative.
In September, Mendel met with Assemblywoman Andrea Katz, D-Burlington, in support of legislation introduced by Katz that would prohibit social media platforms from promoting certain features or practices of eating disorders to child users.
“I speak from personal experience. I have struggled with it,” Mendel said. “I have been advocating for three years.”
