Braea Tilford is a pageant and branding consultant with a passion for preparing girls and young women to pursue their purpose.

Content creator, serial entrepreneur, public speaker—Braea Tilford is a multi-hyphenate on the rise. Braea’s story starts in the fashion closet at Ebony Magazine, where she worked as a Style & Beauty Intern. Getting an inside look at the fashion industry and working amongst so many stylish women instilled in her a deep appreciation for fashion, which she now channels into her content platform. Through her brand, she seeks to inspire and connect with other millennial women through her engaging style, beauty and lifestyle content.

Braea’s time at Ebony also showed her what it was like to work with powerful women. Being surrounded by beautiful, brilliant Black women every day who were living their dreams and helping each other succeed inspired her to create a similar growth-minded environment for younger women. In 2015, she launched Grow Lead Inspire, a platform for next-gen girls and young changemakers that fosters self-discovery, leadership and social impact.

Perhaps the most well-known achievement that Braea has accomplished was being crowned Miss Kentucky USA in 2018, after tying for the win in 2017. She is honored to have been the third African-American woman to represent Kentucky as part of the Miss Universe Organization. Her win quickly attracted a dedicated fan base of women just like her: ambitious millennials who value female empowerment and connection. In 2018, she launched Inter Mix Events, a pop-up networking and leadership experience for creative, millennial women to widen her reach.

In her free time, Braea is a passionate social activist, community advocate and public speaker. She is a big believer in intentionality and intentionally works toward becoming a truer, more beautiful version of herself every day. She encourages others to do the same through self-reflection and creative expression, in whatever form that may take. When she is not busy mentoring and coaching young women or creating new spaces for authentic connections, Braea can be found writing, cooking at home or working out at Barry’s Bootcamp.