Imani Blackmon Miss Washington Teen USA

Imani grew up in Federal Way, WA taking in the city life and gaining her outgoing personality. Imani's hometown means a lot to her, her best friends are here along with all of her childhood memories. Throughout the years of living in Federal Way she has been a part of many events, making her known in her community. She has been a part of parades, talent shows, state champion dance teams and so much more. Imani is known for her bubbly personality, someone that is always smiling and always being a leader.

These qualities have all been given to her by nature. Imani is always happy; she believes that life is too short to think negative on things. Because of her hyper and energizing ways, Imani discovered her passion for performing at a young age. Dance was an outlet for Imani to release her feelings, the feeling of dancing brought joy to her heart. After taking a few classes of ballet and tap, Imani found her passion, dance. She began to take it a lot more seriously, becoming a competitive dancer and training five days a week in jazz, tap, ballet, lyrical, and hip-hop. Imani has won numerous awards and scholarships throughout her dance career including a LEON dance summer intensive scholarship in New York this past year. Imani has had the opportunity to travel to many places for dance such as California, Florida, Oregon, Philidelphia and Vegas. Imani became so foucused on dance, she made it her job. Imani became a professional dancer for the WNBA Seattle Storm dance troupe at the age of ten. Her job was getting the crown involved and excited through her dancing. Imani continued to dance on the troupe for four consecutive seasons, eventually becoming captain. Imani sees this as one of the greatest times in her dance career.

Along with dance Imani has had a passion for pageants for a long time, since the age of five. Pageants have allowed Imani to gain lifelong skills such as confidence, poise, communication skills and so much more. Imani has been privileged to hold several pageant titles throughout her pageant career. With these titles she has been able to be a part of her community in a greater way. Imani has looked at pageants as something that will always be with her, something that has shaped her into the person she is today.

As a senior at Tacoma School of the Arts as a dance major, Imani is looked up upon as a role model at her school. Imani is in the top percent of her class for maintaining a great G.P.A throughout the years. She is involved with her school's dance company, a dance class that performs throughout the year. Imani is known at school for always having a positive attitude and always there to help others. She sees herself as a leader at her school, making the Tacoma School of the Arts experience enjoyable to every student.

Imani's greatest passion is public speaking and helping others. She was involved with the Martin Luther King Jr. televised celebration at the Tacoma Dome for two years speaking about unity. Imani believes that giving back to your community is very important. She lives by the motto "pay it forward" saying that we must all lend a helping hand to one another. Because of Imani's big heart, she has always been attached to kids and mentoring. Imani is known at a local daycare in Tacoma, all of the kids love her because of her playful ways. Imani have been involved in the BRIDGE program in her school where she was able to mentor a disabled student in a dance class, teaching her different ways to move her body through dance along with gain confidence by participating in class like other students.

Although Imani is very bust through her dance, school, work, pageants and community service, she knows how to balance it all too still have time to be a teen. Imani enjoys shopping, texting and hanging out with friends. She also loves spending quality time with her family. Imani's positive attitude allows her to continue to be successful throughout her life, her "conquer the world" persona tells us that Imani won't let anyone or anything get in the way of following her dreams.