Today we’d like to introduce you to Paris Beal.
Hi Paris, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I’m the youngest of five daughters but the youngest of my mom’s three children, Austin, London and Paris. I was born in Austin and grew up in Westlake always aspiring to become a vet. Along my journey with my single mom, she taught me how to be independent, courageous, compassionate and of course how to be glamorous. I fell in love with pageantry as a kid for the glamor and I beamed at the opportunity the crown gave the women. When I was old enough to compete, it was my mother and my favorite pastime to do anything pageant related from gown shopping to interview prep. She, unfortunately, got breast cancer when I was 11 and metastasized to bone cancer when I was 13, only to pass five months before my 18th birthday. While she was here she helped me create a nonprofit for metastatic breast cancer awareness, we named it the Pink Butterfly Foundation because she was obsessed with butterflies and filled our house with real framed butterflies and it was both of favorite colors. Since she passed, I achieved our goal of winning Miss Austin Teen USA and got to compete at Miss Texas Teen in July and recently got a job at an animal hospital to further my aspirations to become a veterinarian.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Having a single mother always was a challenge from limited time with her to limiting our “normal” life due to our budget. But my mother always taught me to work hard for what you wanted so I got my first job at 14 and have been working ever since. Even in my first pageants as a nine years old girl, my mom made it clear the budget only allowed very cheap food, some meals even coming from the hotel vending machine. But after the weekend. My mother bragged because I never complained because I was exactly where I wanted to be, a pageant.
The world has also felt unfamiliar since my mother passed when I was 17, I sat for almost an entire year in my room doing nothing just completely overcome with grief. I had to focus on what makes me happy every day and I had to focus on doing that consistently. I had to think about how my stagnant state at the time would impact my mom and I remembered how she would beam at my accomplishments and that is what motivated me to get out of my bed.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I work at an animal hospital in Westlake as a dog kennel technician. I have 11-hour shifts taking care of all of our dogs we take in for boarding, baths, and daycare. It’s a very physical job with lots of lifting, walking, wrangling, and of course, the occasional bites and scratches. At my job I’m known as the one that makes up little songs/jingles for the dogs, I do it for my dogs at home and so it’s just natural to sing the dogs a little personal song on their way from the daycare yard to their car. I’m most proud to have a job that I love to come to work to, I’m the polar opposite from a morning person but this job has made me able to get up every day at 6am because I’m just so excited to get to the dogs.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
Spreading awareness about metastatic breast cancer and how it affects families is most important to me because I know how many other single mothers are going through exactly what my mom went through alone just like we were. I want to grow my foundation to such a level I can directly fund patients and help directly with their bills and daily expenses so their family can live out the rest of that patient’s journey in peace.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: paris.beal
Image Credits
Main headshot only: Mark Daughn
