Annette Addo-Yobo makes history as first Ghanaian to be crowned Miss Texas 2024

Ghanaian-born Annette Addo-Yobo has been crowned Miss Texas 2024. The North Texas resident was crowned queen of the beauty pageant on Saturday night at the Charles W. Eisemann Center for Performing Arts in Richardson, USA.

Annette Addo-Yobo has made history as the first immigrant-born and the first Ghanaian to win the title of Miss Texas.

Addo-Yobo was born in Ghana but was raised in Canada and the U.S. She studied at the University of Texas at Dallas and in 2020 earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology.

She will receive $20,000 in scholarship money and will represent Texas in the Miss America contest.

In a post on Instagram to celebrate her achievement, Addo-Yobo says she is “humbled, honored, and grateful” to be the 87th Miss Texas and hopes to “continue making history with the Texas community and the Miss Texas class.”

She previously held the title of Miss Dallas in 2023 and also competed as Miss Southlake this year.

In a “Miss Southlake” account post she describes how she “lost out on many opportunities as a teenager and college student” due to her citizenship status. It wasn’t until 2022 that she received U.S. citizenship.

Annette Addo-Yobo used the pageant’s platform to raise awareness of a cause that was important to her.

Her spoken word performance was a testament to her dedication to raising awareness of autism, a cause that initially resonated with her as a young child.

“I want to bring autism safety, awareness and education to the frontlines of our programming and our legislation. My younger brother Andrew was diagnosed on the spectrum when he was age four. And as an immigrant to this country, he had a large learning curve to overcome,” said Addo-Yobo.

It seems winning the pageant has only boosted Addo-Yobo’s motivation to use her platform, The SPARK Project, which addresses the structural inequities she has witnessed her brother Andrew face in various spaces.

“As a sibling to someone on the spectrum, I noticed the systemic inequities and lack of education and training very early,” Addo-Yobo continued in her Instagram post. “It is my mission to amplify the voices of the autistic community and ensure that legislators, decision-makers, and community members see us and fight for us.”