A Crowning Achievement
Recently, Letters spoke with musician, pageant winner, and reality show contestant (and Lewes, Delaware resident!) Kariselle Snow about coming out, her career, and her hopes for the future….
“It was a soft launch,” says entertainer Kariselle Snow, of her coming out experience as a teen. “I just started dating a woman, and let people figure it out. I mean—it’s not that hard to put it together….” She admits, though, that “I kind of wore it with shame till I was in my early 20s. I lived in a small town in New Jersey; it was okay to be queer, but no one talked about it. Then, when I was 23, I began going to LGBTQ+ events and gatherings and meeting people like me—and began to be out and PROUD.”
The whole experience may have helped soft launch her career, too: one way she coped with feeling “different” in her teens was through comedy and entertaining people. And found she really enjoyed it—far more than she thought she would the more buttoned-down career as a lawyer she briefly considered in middle school and high school. Those thoughts swirled till she recognized that school wasn’t so much her “thing,” in which case law school…. “I mean, what was I thinking?!”
Opportunities to entertain turned up aplenty. Fresh out of college, Kariselle pursued music (an ongoing passion). She’s also a pageant competitor (she competes as Kelly Smith); she won the 2020 Miss New Jersey United States pageant and was Miss Rehoboth Beach in 2021. She holds the title of Miss Lewes 2023 and was first runner-up in the 2023 Miss Delaware USA pageant. She’s appeared in multiple reality shows, including Perfect Match, Netflix’s Sexy Beast (she was dressed as a panda for that one), and MTV’s Are You the One?
Music is where you can find her right now: She’s a lead vocalist for the rock ‘n roll cover band Coming Alive. With bookings this summer throughout the Mid-Atlantic, she’s looking forward to a full season of entertaining. A recent highlight: the band played New Jersey Pride at Asbury Park. Says Kariselle, “My bandmates are wonderful, active allies of the community—it was a fabulous experience.” Coming Alive is appearing at Seacrets, in Ocean City, Maryland, in July and September; check their Facebook page for details.
Asked what she found to be the most challenging among her experiences, she immediately identified pageantry. “I am a clumsy, uncoordinated kind of person; I’m kind of quirky and loud. A pageant contestant needs to be very poised and articulate, and needs to present in a certain way. For me, it took a LOT of training—about a year of it. And I was starting much later in life than many contestants, who had been competing in pageants for years.”
So, why did she pursue it? “There was so little representation of queer people in the pageant’s history—just one trans state queen [Kataluna Enriquez, 2021] and one bi state queen [Rachel Slawson, 2020]. So one reason I wanted to compete was to show younger people a bi person being successful.”
She goes on to add, “The ‘It Gets Better’ project is a favorite of mine. I just think it’s so important to let young people know that being LGBTQ+ is something they can be proud of. And that being queer doesn’t mean they can’t also be professionally—or personally—successful. When you’re young and just recognizing you’re queer and you’re thinking, ‘what do I do now?!’, it helps to see happy, successful adults.”
If pageantry was the most difficult of her experiences to date, Kariselle notes that the reality shows have been her favorites. “I’ve loved being able to entertain ever-larger audiences. It’s a really competitive industry, and the shows require a certain set of talents or skills. You have to have an ability to shine; to make evident your love of entertaining. You have to be bold and unafraid of embarrassing yourself.”
How did Kariselle end up in Delaware? “I feel like I’ve been moving in-and-out of Delaware for three years, now! [laughs] It’s nicely located between DC and New York and, frankly, it’s always just felt like ‘home base.’ I do so many fast-paced things; I love the slower pace. I love feeling I can just chill and enjoy the moment and recharge. I especially love the off-season; it has such a peaceful, relaxing vibe.”
As for her hopes for the future, Kariselle notes, “I’d love to travel the world. I’ve never had the opportunity to do that and would love to explore other places and cultures. But truly—I just trust in the universe. Everything I’ve experienced has found me at the right place and time. I just surrender control, keep my ‘vibrations’ high, and wait to see what comes. I believe you get from the universe what you put into it; you can attract success. So I give it my all—and can’t wait to see what comes!” ▼
Marj Shannon is editor of Letters from CAMP Rehoboth.