Featured Queen – Alayna Robichaux
Written by Damion Haines
Interview and Photoshoot the former Miss St Bernard Redfish Festival Queen.
Damion: All right. So first of all, we’re gonna start by you introducing yourself. So what, your name, what do you, what crowns have you had?
Alayna: My name is Alayna Robichaux. I am 19, turning 20 next month (February) and I was the 2020-2021 Saint Bernard Redfish Festival Queen. And I’m still working for more crowns!
Damion: Have you always competed in festival pageants or have you competed in other systems?
Alayna: I actually have done another system. I competed for National American Miss when I was very young, and the girl who won is Leanna Lanford, who I’m now friends with. I did that once a long time ago and I bawled my eyes out because I had no clue what I was doing and I didn’t do very good.
Damion: How long ago was that?
Alayna: Oh, I had to be like seven years old. Okay. It was a long, long time ago.
Damion: So you’ve been competing for a while?
Alayna: That was my first ever pageant.
Damion: What do you remember from that pageant, do you remember your dress?
Alayna: Oh, it was turquoise and I remember we got it from this little dress store and my mom picked it out and I just did not like it.
Damion: What made you enter that first pageant?
Alayna: I’m gonna be completely honest. My mom. I’d always grown up around the Plaquemine’s Parish Orange Queen and there was nothing for me to compete locally when I was that young. So that was what my mom came upon when she wanted to enter me in my first pageant.
Damion: So your mom was who got you into it at the beginning?
Alayna: Yeah. I also used to watch Toddlers & Tiaras when I was young and I think that might’ve made my mom wanna put me in it.
Damion: Anything else happen at that pageant that you remember?
Alayna: Just meeting Leanna really and she won. She was standing by me for a lot of it too, but there was about a hundred of us, it was a lot of girls.
Damion: How many pageants do you think you’ve competed in?
Alayna: I’ve competed in seven.
Damion: Have you done the same pageant multiple times?
Alayna: Yes, I’ve competed in 5 different pageants and the same one a couple of times.
Damion: You won St Bernard Redfish Queen in 2020?
Alayna: 2020 until May, 2022. So I had the title for a good while because of Covid.
Damion: St Bernard Redfish is one of the titles that means a lot to you?
Alayna: I actually learned about it because the teen Queen at the time is also from my area, Isa Rivera.
Fishing is important to my family, so I said, “this is something I have interest in”. And, and I ended up doing very well unexpectedly, I think it was because I was so calm.
Damion: So St. Bernard big fishing Parish?
Alayna: Yes. And uh, and so is Plaquemines, which is where I’m from.
“Worry less and do your best”
Damion: You first competed 12 years ago, do you still have nerves all these years later?
Alayna: Definitely. You get in your head a lot. You start and like, if judges aren’t very open in conversation during an interview, you start freaking out and you’re like, “oh my gosh, what do they think of me?” And that’s all you’re thinking about for the rest of the day. So yes, I still get nerves.
Damion: Do you get nervous about the same things even though there’s so many years difference?
Alayna: No. I feel like when I was younger I was more just scared to go in front of people and scared to fall and trip. Yeah. Now it’s definitely different. You’re scared that you’re gonna mess up a speech or I still get nervous with people think a little more than I was when I was little.
Damion: So is, is there a part of the pageants that you just really struggle a little more with?
Alayna: Well, on stage question is definitely the struggle first because there’s so much going on around you when they ask you the questions. So sometimes their question goes in one ear or not the other before you know it. It’s different than interview because in interview there’s not much going on around you except for the three judges in front of you. Now you have a whole audience in front of you and you have to speak off the bat. So I definitely think one stage question is my struggle.
Damion: Have you learned any tricks to deal with it?
Alayna: Just don’t look at the audience,
Just don’t look at the audience,
Damion: So that’s your, your worst or your most fearful part of it, what’s your favorite part of the pageant?
Alayna: Strutting my stuff on stage, to be honest. Just walking around because, you know, in the dress you feel good and I still hear people shouting my name during that part. So I think that’s the calm part and I’m not really worried about tripping anymore, so that’s good.
Damion: After doing this 12 years. What motivates you to keep competing?
Alayna: I mean, I have dreams, and obviously if I don’t compete then I can never achieve it. I’ve had one title in mind, like my end goal and I don’t want to give up that goal because it is something that I’ve been wanting since I was a little kid.
Damion: Which crown is that?
Alayna: The Orange Queen. I’ve been around it my whole life. I have memories when I was probably like two years old, three years old, watching an orange queen and I’m, I don’t wanna give that up.
Damion: When you get first runner up, do you ever think to yourself, I did everything I could? Or do you instantly go to, what did I do wrong? Be honest.
Damion: Let’s move away from pageants for a second. So you talk about gonna to school to be a veterinarian.
Alayna: Yes. I want to be a zoo veterinarian.
Damion: You want to help big animals and scary animals. What type of animals are you most excited to work with?
Alayna: I’m waiting to intern to really be able to tell, but either big cats or Primates?
Damion: Are you gonna stay local do you think?
Alayna: I want to, but getting into the business is gonna be hard. I would like to work at Audubon Zoo in New Orleans. That’s the goal. But you don’t know at that time if they’ll have a spot available and how long it will be, so we’ll see.
Damion: Do you do much traveling?
Alayna: I wish I could travel more. I did travel a good bit this past summer. My brother goes to school in Michigan, so I went there and it was freezing. Yeah. Like, absolutely freezing. Don’t wanna do that again. I do love traveling. I just don’t have the time for it most of the time.
Damion: What happens after you win it? Where do you go from there? Any ideas?
Alayna: I’d have to wait and see. I am trying to get into vet school, so I will need to start focusing on my career at some point. I don’t honestly have a clue what my future holds with pageants after that. At the end of it, when I am Orange Queen at the end of the reign, then I’ll decide.
Damion: You competed this year for Orange Queen, did you place?
Alayna: I was first runner up.
Damion: Is first runner up the toughest place to finish?
Alayna: I would say yes because after the pageant, all you can think about is, oh, I could have changed one thing and I could’ve won. Yeah, especially for me, my score sheets didn’t say anything that I did wrong. So I’m just constantly sitting there thinking, what did I do wrong? Like, what can I fix? But you don’t know what to fix. They gave me positive feedback, but they didn’t give me any negative feedback. Right. So I don’t know what I have to fix or like what is one thing that I could have changed?
Damion: Louisiana is home for you. If you had your dream, you’d be a Louisiana girl forever?
Alayna: Yes. I love the culture here. Yeah.
Damion: All right. So getting back to pageants, do you have a pageant bestie? Is there somebody that you always turn to?
Alayna: Yes. She isn’t a queen right now, but she was, she had two titles. Her name is Alexis Lee. She was Tangipahoa Parish Fair Queen and Independence Sicilian Heritage Festival Queen. I love her. She goes to Southeastern. She’s a little bit older than me, but she still comes and supports me at all my pageants. Every time I see her, she makes me cry in the audience.
Damion: Have you ever competed against her?
Alayna: Yes, at LAFF (Louisiana Association of Fairs & Festivals). We were both in top 15 and we both got called next to each other, so we were standing next to each other on stage.
Damion: Is she competing at the moment?
Alayna: She’s not competing right now. I’m hoping she competes again for something. Yeah, I want her to be Strawberry Queen.
Damion: What advice would you give to new pageant contestants?
Alayna: I’m gonna be completely honest, after that first pageant, I didn’t do it again until I was about 13 years old. When I was 13 years old, I did a pageant again. I failed, so my advice would be to just keep sticking with it. Even if you get out there and you have no clue what you’re doing, just always wanna better yourself and don’t give up, is what I’m trying to say. Don’t give up because you’re never gonna achieve what you want if you give up.
Damion: There’s a word you just used that interests me, you said you “failed”.
Alayna: I had no clue what I was doing. Not a clue!
Damion: What do you see as failed? How did you “fail”?
Alayna: I have high standards. I didn’t have a speech prepared, like I didn’t have a walking pattern and I went into interview not knowing anything about what I was gonna be talking about. So I just wasn’t prepared yet because I had no clue what was going on.
Damion: So, you feel you failed because you hadn’t prepared rather than you hadn’t won?
Alayna: Yes! I didn’t really know what to prepare for as I had never done it.
Damion: Let’s say you had done all of your preparation and not won, would you call that a failure?
Alayna: No.
Damion: OK, I was just curious about you using the word Failed….. Do you have a platform that you are passionate about?
Alayna: Something I feel strongly about is habitat conservation and redevelopment and protection of the coastlines. It’s a shame the amount of cans, plastic and trash in the water. I went out in St Bernard Parish and I cleaned the bayou when I was the St Bernard Parish Redfish Queen and we did pretty good.
Damion: Let’s talk about influences in your home life, who are major influences there?
Alayna: Obviously my parents, my dad got into an industry that you could only get into if you had a dad or relative already in the business, and he did it without having somebody there. So he is a big influence, he didn’t give up! He’s a river boat pilot and most river boat pilots have dads and grandads to help them in. My dad went into it without that and now he’s a captain.
Don’t give up because you’re never gonna achieve what you want if you give up.
Damion: How about in the pageant industry? Not necessarily pageant girls or queens, is there anybody that influences you in that world?
Alayna: All of the Orange Queens, even after the title, they’re still influential in our community and I love talking to them all the time. Okay. So I would say them. Ashley Stewart (Sportsman’s Paradise & Redfish director), you and Lexi (Vivace Cosmetics) and the people that have supported me.
Damion: Any thanks or sponsors that you wanna give a shout out to?
Alayna: You (The Headshots Guy) for my headshots and Lexi of Vivace Cosmetics for Hair and Makeup and Mrs. Ashley Stewart of St. Bernard Redfish and Sportsman’s Paradise are my people. Big thanks to my parents for sticking with me, especially my dad who pays for all my stuff. Chuck with The Dress Diaries in Lafayette, love him, he did my Orange Pageant dress and he does my interview suits too. Jorge Esteban, the director of Miss Universe Iceland and owner of PageantSmart. He has given me some interview prep. Tanistry Spray Tans who do all my tanning. Brian Applewhite for helping me with my walking. Thank you to all.
Hair & Makeup: Lexi Corsentino Bernard of Vivace Cosmetics
Interview – Damion Haines Photography – The Headshots Guy
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