Megan Rivera. Photo: Chris Emeott
Megan Rivera found her voice competing in pageants.
If there’s one thing reigning Miss Minnesota USA Megan Rivera wants you to know, it’s this: “I just want to emphasize how pageants are more than looking pretty on a stage,” says Rivera, who lives in Prior Lake.
Rivera uses her pageant work as a platform to promote Days for Girls, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting menstrual health for women and girls around the world. Rivera has been involved with the organization since 2018 when she started volunteering during her senior year of high school at Visitation School in Mendota Heights.
And the public speaking skills she’s honed training for pageants have helped Rivera in her career as a merchandise specialist in women’s apparel at Target Corporation. She creates seasonal assortments for A New Day as well as other Target brands and collaborations, working closely with designers to finalize fabrics and silhouettes and communicating with the vendors producing the clothes. Rivera majored in fashion merchandising at Marist University in New York because she wanted to pursue a career in fashion, but she was more interested in the business side than designing clothes.
Miss Minnesota USA Megan Rivera likes to relax by boating and waterskiing on Prior Lake, and last summer she decided to bring her crown along for the ride. Photos: Brittany Link Photography
Rivera grew up in Prior Lake and attended St. Michael Catholic School through eighth grade. She competed in her first pageant when she was 12 and then competed in two more in high school. “When I was younger and became interested in pageants, what drew me in was how the titleholders seemed to achieve their goals and overcome hardships in life,” she says. “It was so impressive to me, and it motivated me to go after my goals no matter what other people thought or said.”
After winning the title of Miss Minnesota USA in August, Rivera competed in the Miss USA pageant in Reno, Nevada, in October. “My experience at Miss USA was incredible,” Rivera says, noting that the pageant recently removed the age limit for competing. “The youngest contestant was 19, and the oldest was in her 40s. It was really cool just to have a wide range of people with different experiences, different reasons why they competed and different things that they advocate for. It was fun learning from them.”
Megan Rivera was crowned Miss Minnesota USA in August.
Rivera started training to compete in Miss Minnesota USA about 10 months before the pageant, and the three months prior to the competition were the most intense. As a part of her training, she exercised regularly, practiced her walk and recorded herself answering interview questions, so she could play them back and critique her answers. She’s spent the past year making appearances as Miss Minnesota USA, but all of that will end when the next Miss Minnesota USA is crowned in August.
For the first time in three years, Rivera won’t be training for a pageant or holding a pageant title. But she’s looking forward to traveling more (She’s visited five of the seven continents.), continuing her yoga practice, and boating and water skiing on Prior Lake.
Megan Rivera
Instagram: @megan.rivera3
