BALTIMORE — A student at Morgan State University is competing in the upcoming Miss Maryland Pageant.
Elle Miles was recently crowned Miss Baltimore 2025 back in March, and this June, she will be competing for the title of Miss Maryland.
Miles created SHIFT, which stands for Strengthen self-esteem, Honor humanity, Ignore distractions, Foster true friendships, and Take back your time, all to encourage young people to prioritize authentic friendships, real joy, and lasting self-respect.
"It's all about, tackling social media addiction within my generation and younger generations and kind of society as a whole, you know, like we all have a problem with being on our phones all the time. A lot of us can't go 10, 15, 5 minutes without looking at our phone checking for a notification, checking to see who has interacted with us," says Elle Miles.
Her initiative comes at an important time, as many people struggle with the negative impacts of social media.
"It develops anxiety, it develops depression, it develops this feeling of why I'm missing out. I feel like these people don't care about me because they're not interacting with me online. Meanwhile, I'm not caring about the interactions I'm having in real life," says Miles.
As Miles prepares to compete for the Miss Maryland title, she is eager to further promote the SHIFT campaign and use her skills from the theatre to help with her message.
"I really wanna use SHIFT to educate students and do outreach focus on helping them connect with themselves and connect with each other," she says.
She says she also wants to be an inspiration to other young girls who may be interested in pageantry. She says as long as you find your purpose, you can use a platform like Miss Baltimore or Miss Maryland to help communities.
"Sit with yourself and think about what do you care about as a person, what do you hold valuable, what do you hold to be true, and how can you best amplify that and put that as an example for others to follow," says Miles.
Although she was crowned Miss Baltimore just over two months ahead of the Miss Maryland pageant, she says she has been getting an overwhelming amount of support from her university and her community.
The Miss Maryland pageant is June 16th through the 21st.
