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Life isn’t always easy for this beauty queen.
The kids need rides to school, the laundry needs to be folded and
someone needs to put the lid down so the dog stops drinking from the
toilet.
All in day’s work for Andrea Preuss, mother of two, wife,
full-time sales manager and Huntington Beach resident.
Now Preuss is taking on a new role, advocating for families and
married women across the country.
On Sept. 7, Preuss was named Mrs. America during a pageant at the
Riviera Resort and Racquet Club in Palm Springs.
The former Miss America contestant said she’s loving her new role
representing married women across the country.
“A lot of people ask me how it’s possible to work full time and
raise a family,” she said. “I tell them you have to get your
priorities straight. It’s tough to be a great mom, a great wife and
still do a great job.”
Preuss competed against 49 other mothers -- one for each U.S.
state -- for the honor. Preuss was able to bring her young family on
stage to accept her title -- her moment of glory temporarily
interrupted when her four-year-old son tried to jump in the pool in
pursuit of a cricket.
“Oh, that’s just the way things go sometimes,” she said, laughing.
“I’m just a regular mom, and sometimes kids misbehave.”
Now Preuss plans to travel around the country in her new role,
heading to Washington, D.C., to raise money for breast cancer
research and later to New York City for celebrity signings.
“The Mrs. America pageant lets me bring my family on a lot of
these trips with me,” she said, adding that her company has also been
accommodating of her new role.
“If people are happy in their jobs and happy with their time, they
tend to perform better. A lot of times, it just means asking your
employer for time off for your children. It’s important to advocate
for your family.”
Preuss, 32, grew up in a military family and traveled all over the
United States. She went to high school in Virginia, earning the
honors of Miss Tabb High School -- her first beauty pageant -- before
being named Miss Teen Virginia and later Miss Virginia.
After graduating from college, Preuss traveled the world dancing
on a cruise ship before meeting her husband and settling in
Huntington Beach. Preuss has a bachelor’s degree from Virginia Tech
and a master’s degree from Pepperdine.
She currently works as a sales manager for a large pharmaceuticals
company.
She said her role models are her parents, who remain married. They
attended the Mrs. America pageant to cheer her on.
“We don’t have a lot of role models that have stayed married in
today’s society,” she said. “We’re often so busy that I think people
forget how important it is to be happy in their home life.”
Preuss said she is also inspired by her mother-in-law, Sandi
Preuss, who died of breast cancer. Sandi Preuss spent the last few
years of her life with her son and daughter-in-law. The experience
inspired Preuss to raise money for breast cancer awareness.
She said she gets a lot of smiles when she lets breast-cancer
patients wear her crown.
“Nothing is better than seeing the smile on their face when they
feel beautiful, even if it’s for a second,” she said. “It’s a chance
for me not to touch people’s lives, but for a few people to touch
mine.”
Preuss’s husband Will said he’s enjoyed his wife’s rise to stardom
and said the spotlight has been good for their marriage.
“Whatever makes her happy, makes me happy,” he said. “She’s a real
go-getter, and I’m really just happy to see her succeed.”
That happiness took a lot of work and preparation. She spent two
weeks rehearsing for the Mrs. America pageant, sometimes practicing
her dance routine for 11 to 12 hours a day.
“It was quite an experience,” she said. “There were moments like
the swimsuit competition that you can’t forget. Here I am, a
32-year-old mom, having to compete against a 24-year-old that has
never had kids. I remember thinking to myself ‘Now wait a second
here,’” she joked.
But she managed to make it to the finals by sticking to her guns,
she said.
“I guess you just have to find who you are as a person inside,”
she said. “And it really helps that my family was there. This will
only last for a year, but my family will always be there.”
Preuss will compete in the Mrs. World competition in March and
said that her inspiration will once more be her kids and her husband.
“If they can believe in me, then that’s all that really matters,”
she said. “It’s that belief that they had in me that counts, even
more than the belief that I had in myself.”
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