Miss Minnesota's platform is autism awareness-vote her her

[Guest guest]

TLC is giving America the opportunity to vote for "America's Choice," inwhich case the contestant with the most votes will automatically become afinalist on January 26. One may go to www.tlc.com/missamerica to vote forMinnesota as "America's Choice."

http://www.missminnesota.org/Comp_NewMissMN.htm

What do you hope to accomplish during your year?

My platform of Understanding Autism is extremely personal to me. Growing up with two brothers diagnosed with autism has been both a challenge and a blessing. My goal as Miss Minnesota is to educate the public about autism spectrum disorders so that they may begin to see autism not as a disability, but rather a beautiful difference. Each child with autism has a special gift, my brother for example is a chess champion, and I want to share their attributes with the state of Minnesota so that everyone can learn to be more tolerant and accepting of people who are different. I would love to partner with the Best Buddy program. This program was developed by the Shriver family and is slowly making its way into school systems across the state. I want to speed up this process, ensuring that all children in special education have a friend and mentor they can count on. I have many ambitions and goals associated with my platform and am excited to watch them unfold! Where I am concerned there are endless possibilities....