Cheslie Kryst is a popular model, beauty pageant titleholder, and attorney. Her estimated net worth is $1 million to $5 million.
She was born in Jackson, Michigan on April 28, 1991, to a Polish American father and an African American mother. She has four brothers and a sister.
Career
Cheslie Kryst started her career as a pageant queen. She won the Miss Freshman title at Northwestern High School in Rock Hill, South Carolina and later, the Miss Fort Mill High School title.
She made two attempts to win the Miss North Carolina title but failed. In 2018, she was crowned Miss North Carolina Teen USA, which led to her being selected as the third woman from her state to represent it at the Miss USA pageant.
In addition to her pageantry career, she has also worked as an attorney for Poyner Spruill LLP. She has a law degree and an MBA from Wake Forest University.
While practicing law, she specialized in civil litigation and also took on pro bono cases. Among her accomplishments, she has helped clients who were low-level drug offenders free themselves from life sentences. In addition, she is the founder of a fashion blog, White Collar Glam, dedicated to assisting women in dressing appropriately for white-collar work.
Personal Life
In her teenage years, Cheslie Kryst had an interest in pageants. She competed in the Miss North Carolina pageant twice, but she could not win it.
In the year of 2019, she won the Miss USA title and competed in the Miss Universe pageant. She also became a civil litigation attorney.
She also fought for criminal justice reform, and helped release drug offenders. She also served as a correspondent for Extra TV.
Despite her popularity and fame, Kryst was suffering from depression. She hid her condition from the public.
Her mother, Alice Simpkins, said her daughter was dealing with the illness for a while. She gave her first interview after the death of Cheslie Kryst in January on Red Table Talk with Jada Pinkett Smith and shared that Kryst had tried to commit suicide before.
In her essay for Allure magazine in 2021, Kryst wrote about the challenge of speaking out. She said she was “deeply aware” that her success “caused a lot of trolls to come out,” and she also noted that the pressures of race and gender can affect women’s mental health.
Education
Cheslie Kryst was a former Division I athlete who competed in the heptathlon and long jump on South Carolina’s track and field team. She also holds a spot in the school’s triple jump record book.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing and human resource management from the University of South Carolina Honors College, and a juris doctorate and master’s in business administration from Wake Forest University. She subsequently became licensed to practice law in both North Carolina and South Carolina.
She worked as an associate attorney at Poyner Spruill LLP and did pro bono work to reduce sentences for inmates. She also founded the fashion blog White Collar Glam, which aims to help women dress professionally in their white-collar jobs. She also volunteered for organizations like Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Carolinas and Dress for Success Charlotte. She was also a member of the Millennial Advisory Board for the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts and Culture in Charlotte.
Death
When Cheslie Kryst was crowned Miss USA in 2019, she made history as the first Black woman to win the title. She was also the oldest contestant to ever win the title at age 28.
As a North Carolina attorney, she fought for legal reform and pro bono legal services for people who were unjustly convicted of crimes. She also worked as a fashion blogger and entertainment news correspondent, and founded the blog White Collar Glam.
Her accomplishments were many, but her death was a shock to the world. Her family says she was “blindsided by online hate” and suffered from depression.
The former beauty pageant queen took her own life early Sunday morning in Manhattan, according to her family and the New York Police Department. The New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner confirmed she died by suicide and had multiple blunt impact injuries, CNN reports.
Kryst’s mother, Alice Simpkins, shared her first interview since her daughter’s death on Wednesday’s “Red Table Talk” with Jada Pinkett Smith. She revealed that her daughter sent her a distressing text before she committed suicide.