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The stage was set, literally and figuratively, at the Charlie Grime Family Agricultural Center on Jan. 11 as 118 contestants showed grace, poise, and personality as they vied for a title in the 2025 Junior Royalty Pageant, sponsored by the Florida Strawberry Festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Contestants participated in one of four age categories including Baroness (five to six years old), Duchess (seven to nine years old), Princess (10 to 12 years old), and Queen (13 to 15 years old).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pageant, emceed by Mark Yarbrough and Rhett Rollyson, included a preliminary competition, where each contestant was introduced and walked the stage, smiling and waving to the onlookers and judges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following a slideshow detailing the 2024 Junior Royalty Queen and Court\u2019s reign (Queen Brooke Browning, Princess Ava Bikowski, Duchess Kezley Salinas, and Baroness Reagan Causey), the field of contestants was narrowed to 10 finalists in each age category. Contestants were judged on personality (30 percent of the total score), stage presence (30 percent of the total score), and overall beauty (40 percent of the total score).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finalists in each category
included:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Baroness: Quinn Eliza Lazzara, Sofia Navarrete, Emersyn Dixon, Jessi Faye Lunsford, Charlie Rae Kocsis, Breelyn Asher Brock, Sunny Rae Wiggs, Emma Grace Gill, Adalynn Lloyd, Gianna Gutierrez<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Duchess: Camdyn Rae Waters, Olivia Grace Valerius, Lily Kate Gaschler, Charleigh Rae Harris, Alani Rose Pouncy, Harper Grace Sikes, Claire Marie Cannon, Sailor Ainsley Showalter, Ava Grace Robinson, Adalynn Jade Swartz<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Princess: Ainslee Creel, Rowen Ashford Morgan, Calleigh Jo Welch, Molly Jewel Terrell, Addisyn Danielle Wise, Georgia Sue-Ann Hunter, Kadance Drawdy, Emma Russell, Rylee Lynn Eranen, Lily Anna Lynn Lawton<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Queen: Emma Jayne Fagnan, Aubrey Ellis Duncan, Alleigh Lynn Goff, Josslyn Bree Pentecost, Georgia Peyton Pippin, Trista Maye Azeltine, Teagan Ella-Rose Brake, Alexis Nicole Garza, Jade Aubrie Brevard, Cherith Amber Milligan<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Each finalist in the three younger age groups then answered an on-stage interview question: \u201cThe theme is \u2018The Stage is Set\u2019 so we want to know why are you excited about the new stage at the Florida Strawberry Festival?\u201d The finalists in the Queen age group each drew a question from a fishbowl that contained three questions. The contestants spoke excitedly about seeing the top-notch performers take the stage at the festival, some naming specific artists like Reba McEntire. Contestant Charlie Rae Harris hopes that Taylor Swift will someday make another appearance on the festival\u2019s new stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the interview questions, each group was narrowed down to five contestants, and a winner and first runner-up was chosen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The top five finalists in each age group included:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Baroness: Sofia Navarrete, Jessi Faye Lunsford, Emma Grace Gill, Adalynn Lloyd, Gianna Gutierrez<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Duchess: Camdyn Rae Waters, Charleigh Rae Harris, Alani Rose Pouncy, Harper Grace Sikes, Adalynn Jade Swartz<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Princess: Ainslee Creel, Rowen Ashford Morgan, Calleigh Jo Welch, Georgia Sue-Ann Hunter, Lily Anna Lynn Lawton<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Queen: Emma Jayne Fagnan, Aubrey Ellis Duncan, Alleigh Lynn Goff, Teagan Ella-Rose Brake, Cherith Amber Milligan<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After a few anticipatory moments, age group winners were announced:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Baroness Adalynn Lloyd and First Runner-up Sofia Navarrete<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Duchess Charleigh Rae Harris and First Runner-up Adalynn Jade Swartz<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Princess Rowen Ashford Morgan and First Runner-up Ainslee Creel<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Queen Alleigh Lynn Goff and First Runner-up Teagan Ella-Rose Brake<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The winners, wearing crowns and sashes and carrying flowers and trophies, were congratulated by family members and loved ones. For Morgan, the moment was extra special because the former princess was her cousin. \u201cIt was really cool to be crowned by my own family,\u201d she said. Goff said she\u2019s been attending the festival since she was in diapers and it holds a special place in her heart. \u201cThis means the world to me,\u201d she said. \u201cI look forward to this year\u2019s festival and making memories with the court.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Florida Strawberry Festival President Kyle Robinson smiled as he was photographed with and congratulated the new court. \u201cThis is so exciting because this pageant really is the unofficial kickoff to the Florida Strawberry Festival season,\u201d he said. \u201cAll the girls were all beautiful and I was blown away by how well they could speak in front of a large audience. These are life skills they\u2019re developing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Junior Royalty Queen and Court can be found participating in all types of activities at the Florida Strawberry Festival as well as events throughout the community in the upcoming year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Michelle Caceres Plant City Observer The stage was set, literally and figuratively, at the Charlie Grime Family Agricultural Center on Jan. 11 as 118 contestants showed grace, poise, and personality… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"17","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMDFcL2NvdXJ0LXNjYWxlZC0xLndlYnA_Zml0PTc2OCUyQzEwMjQmc3NsPTEiLCJ0eHQiOiJNZWV0IHRoZSAyMDI1IEZsb3JpZGEgU3RyYXdiZXJyeVx1MDBhMEZlc3RpdmFsIEp1bmlvciBSb3lhbHR5IFF1ZWVuIGFuZCBDb3VydCIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiaGlnaHdheSIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.tqle-GGkTfW6PI7mwo5hx3hxCzfwkUEyhhIhToCmSlAMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":53477,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/court-scaled-1.webp","type":"image\/webp"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[10791],"class_list":["post-53476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regional-and-world-news","tag-meet-the-2025-florida-strawberry-festival-junior-royalty-queen-and-court"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53476"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53478,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53476\/revisions\/53478"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}