Text by Judy Latta / Photos by Alyncia Dennis, Senae Photography / Makeup by Sharuba Ahmed

Amanda Gully Is Embracing Her Responsibility To Serve The Community

When Amanda Gully graduated from college, she thought she was hanging up her beauty pageant stilettos forever. Amanda had competed in pageants in high school in Oklahoma City and in college at the University of Mobile in Alabama to earn scholarship money and to provide a creative outlet for her talent for singing; a category she won in every pageant she entered. Once Amanda finished college, however, she intended to shift her focus to a professional career and a family. “Never did I think I would compete again,” she says. She married her husband, Adam, moved to Sugar Land, and the couple had two children, 5-year old son, Castle, and 3-year old daughter, Liesl. Amanda was a blissfully busy wife and mother, and her days were filled with her family, friends and a flourishing home-based business.

So, when a recruiter identified Amanda through Facebook as a promising candidate for the Mrs. Texas pageant, a competition that celebrates the beauty, brains and talents of married women, she originally said she had no interest in returning to competition. The offer brought back memories of some of the less desirable aspects of pageantry. She recalled a particularly awkward pageant interview, and the insecurities that can accompany pageant life. “Like many women,” she explains, “some of those experiences put me in the ‘comparison game.’ I had to learn to be proud of who God made me to be and walk in that purpose.”

After a little encouragement, however, never one to shy away from a challenge, Amanda began to see the Mrs. Texas pageant as a tremendous opportunity. “I never want to stay the same,” she says. “I always want to be growing and I knew saying yes would require a lot of personal and physical growth. So, of course, I said yes.” Amanda was named Mrs. Sugar Land, a title that carries with it responsibilities for serving her community as a woman of influence.

Mrs. Sugar Land

Like everything else in her life, Amanda decided that if she was going to accept this opportunity and challenge, she would embrace it emphatically, strive to make the most of it, and would work diligently to be a positive representative of the community. “I take my title as Mrs. Sugar Land very seriously,” she explains. “Getting involved in the community, hosting fundraisers, attending events – I’m proud to represent my city and it’s my job to take initiative and get involved.” As Mrs. Sugar Land, Amanda works to raise money and to support local charities. She is an ambassador for the AutisticFit Society, volunteers with the Fort Bend Women’s Center, and works on projects with Mayor Joe Zimmerman. “I have dreams and goals and I’m not a woman who just sits back and wastes an opportunity. I wouldn’t be a woman of influence if I didn’t step out and do,” she says.

And, most importantly, as Mrs. Sugar Land, with an emphasis on the “Mrs.,” she embraces the opportunity to include her family in her service to the community. She says, “As a family, we sit down and look at how we can fit our time together into appearances. After all, this is a Mrs. pageant. I wouldn’t be a Mrs. without my husband and a mother without my kids. So, any kind of appearance I might schedule, I try to make it a family affair.”

Mrs. Texas Pageant

As Mrs. Sugar Land, Amanda was a delegate in May to the Mrs. Texas Pageant in Corsicana for a chance to compete in the Mrs. America Pageant. Mrs. Texas delegates are judged on their communication skills, composure, fitness, poise and appearance. “My platform focuses on mental health in a way I haven’t seen or heard. The title of my platform is WORTH – Words Often Reach the Heart,” she says. “Words can wound for years or build for moments, and that’s what my platform is about. Words can penetrate to the deepest parts of us and it’s time we focus on them giving and speaking life instead of destroying.”

Despite her initial reluctance to return to the world of pageants, Amanda, a top 20 finalist in the Mrs. Texas Pageant now feels very fortunate and gratified to have been given the opportunity to be Mrs. Sugar Land. “The pageant celebrates married women in a wonderful light. Every woman is beautiful, successful, and inspiring. We had an incredible director who encouraged us, not just to mentally prepare but to spiritually prepare. And that’s something I’ve cherished,” she says.

“This pageant brought us together for a weekend to celebrate us as women, wives and mothers and reminded us of just how truly remarkable we all are. We all spoke life into each other, which is the most important thing to me. I left full. I left inspired. And I left proud of the person I became. My heart has grown in size during this journey.”