Elizabeth Dicker

When I was 14 years old and wanted to be a model, an agency owner's wife told me I couldn't be a model because I was too short and tried to push me toward commercial modeling instead. But her husband inspired me and told me something I've never forgotten: you can do anything you want to do in this life, and you don't let it stop you because of your height. You just continue to do it. I still remember where I was sitting, where he was standing, and where she was sitting. That moment and his words kept a light toward me, and it's something I will never forget. It gave me the strength to keep pursuing my dreams despite being told I was too short and despite the challenges I faced as a woman of darker complexion in an industry that seemed to favor lighter complexions.

The biggest challenge I see right now is getting broader awareness and participation for important causes like domestic violence. My sister's lighthouse foundation isn't as visible in the community as it should be. I've been doing walks for probably over 4 or 5 years, and it's not as well-attended as it should be. There's not many people out there. The issue is about collaborating, uniting, and connecting the bridge and the gaps together with different organizations. You can't keep everything in one box, in just your area. Right now, domestic violence is very serious because there's a lot of people that just passed and got killed recently in the last couple of weeks. You're always hearing something, that someone got killed by their domestic violence partner, they killed the children, killed them. That's why I'm working to connect organizations like my sister's lighthouse here with Dr. Fatima's Queens United Against Domestic Violence foundation out in Philly, so we can have a broader span. When they have walks, we go over there and bring out the people there, and when we have walks here, we bring all the women and people here to make it bigger and put the light on the awareness of domestic violence.

The most important values to me are perseverance, faith, and never giving up, even when things get incredibly hard. My parents used to say that God won't give you as much as you can bear, so if he's given it to you, you can bear it and you can get through it. I've been getting through everything by grace and mercy. When I was about to win Senior Miss Black America, I actually was going to give up on myself because so much was going wrong that day. I sat on that bed thinking about quitting, but then I realized I had my mentee there, a young lady I got into the Miss Black America pageant, and I thought: that's not a good example. You have to go down there, not only for yourself, but you got to show her, because if you give up, you're showing her that she should give up. So I went back down there, not knowing I was going to win. You just gotta stand strong and hold on to faith and know that you can do this. That moment taught me that perseverance and being an example for others, especially young women, is what matters most.