Emily Spencer set her sights on winning the Miss New Hampshire pageant eight years ago.

First, she won Miss Bedford in 2019. And then Miss Greater Nashua in 2022, Miss Rockingham County and Miss Winnipesaukee in 2023, and then, in May of 2024, she was crowned Miss New Hampshire.

Now, the 23-year-old Bedford, NH, native has her gaze set on an even bigger prize, a prize that Miss New Hampshire has never won before: the coveted Miss America title.

In today's conversation from my makeshift studio in Portsmouth, Emily and I discuss:

• Winning Miss New Hampshire (00:00)
• The long road to becoming Miss NH (06:05)
• The positives and negatives of the job (10:00)
• Emily's future aspirations (26:11)
• Miss America preparation (30:25)
• Emily's New Hampshire upbringing (34:20)
• Emily's service initiative, Miss Inspiration (39:33)
• What's your mission? (49:30)

Emily Spencer is the current Miss New Hampshire. A participant in pageants across the state since 2016, Emily is also a graduate of Point Park University, one of the top dancing schools in the country. She currently lives in Bedford, where she splits her time dancing for a local company, choreographing, working as a flexologist, and fulfilling her laundry list of duties as Miss New Hampshire.

--For more information on how to support Emily and the Miss New Hampshire program, please visit MissNH.org.

--To support the telling of more awesome ⁠Seacoast Stories ⁠like this one, please FOLLOW this podcast on our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and/or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ feeds. It helps more than you know.

This podcast is hosted, written, researched, and produced by Spotify's ⁠⁠⁠Troy Farkas⁠⁠⁠, who lives in downtown Portsmouth.