Keylee Sue Sanders (born July 29, 1977) is an American model and beauty queen who was

Miss Kansas Teen USA The Miss Kansas Teen USA competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Kansas in the Miss Teen USA pageant. This pageant has been part of the Vanbros organisation since 1992, and in 2006, they celebrated their ...

, and

Miss Teen USA Miss Teen USA is a beauty pageant that has been run since 1983 by the Miss Universe Organization for girls aged 14–19 years old as of January 1st of the competition year. They must be US citizens, and cannot have been married, pregnant, or ...

1995. Sanders first won the

title in October 1994. In August 1995 she was crowned

in the national pageant televised live from Wichita, in her home state of

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

. As Miss Kansas Teen USA, Sanders was part of the Vanbros organization, and she would retain links with that group after she gave up her crown.

Early life

Keylee grew up on a horse and cattle ranch in a very small town in Kansas. She wanted to work in fashion for as long as she could remember. Around the age of fourteen, Keylee was in high school, and really wanted a summer job to earn her own money and be independent. She started going door-to-door in her small Kansas town asking local businesses for job applications. She graduated from Kansas State University with a bachelor’s degree in Fashion Design, and started her first post-college job as a personal shopper at Nordstrom. She made the decision to put her degree to work and began designing custom evening wear with her mentor, the late Stephen Yearick. They met when Keylee was Miss Teen USA in 1995 and instantly hit it off. She moved to

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

in 2002 with her then-husband and her career took a shift when an agent talked her into giving the entertainment world a go. Keylee appeared on

Good Day Live ''Good Day L.A.'' is an American morning television news and entertainment program airing on KTTV (channel 11), a Fox owned-and-operated television station in Los Angeles, California, owned by the Fox Television Stations subsidiary of Fox Corpo ...

Soap Talk ''Soap Talk'' is a television talk show on SOAPnet hosted by Lisa Rinna and Ty Treadway. It debuted in 2002 and ended in 2006. The reason for the show's cancellation was due to SOAPnet expanding its programming away from a soap opera-related focus ...

and in a

Smash Mouth Smash Mouth is an American Rock music, rock band from San Jose, California. The band was formed in 1994 and was originally composed of Steve Harwell (lead vocals), Kevin Coleman (drums), Greg Camp (guitar), and Paul De Lisle (bass). Harwell's ...

video. She continues to appear as an on-air fashion expert and on-air host for Good Day LA and Good Day Live. She also continues to model and work in commercials. After a few attempts at acting, she switched from acting to hosting. Keylee remained involved in pageantry, and formed her own pageant consulting business, Keylee Sue & Associates, Inc, in 1997. In 1999, Sanders designed the competition gowns for Miss Kansas Teen USA and

Miss Missouri Teen USA The Miss Missouri Teen USA competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Missouri in the Miss Teen USA pageant. It is directed by Vanbros and Associates, based in Shawnee, Kansas. In 1993, Missouri joined the Vanbr ...

. Sanders joined with Keith Lewis, director of the Morgan Agency to form K2 Productions, and this company took over the directorship of the

Miss California USA Miss California USA is the beauty pageant that selects the representative for the state of California in the Miss USA pageant, and the name of the title held by that winner. The pageant is directed by Crown Diva Productions. California's mos ...

and

Miss California Teen USA The Miss California Teen USA competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of California in the Miss Teen USA pageant. It was formed in 1983. This pageant is part of the Miss USA Organization. California is in the to ...

pageants in 2006. In 2016, she was one of the judges at the

Miss Teen USA 2016 Miss Teen USA 2016 was the 34th Miss Teen USA pageant, was held at The Venetian Theatre in Las Vegas, Nevada on July 30, 2016. The pageant was webcast on the Miss Universe website, Facebook page, and mobile app as well as on Xbox 360 and Xbox ...

pageant, in The Venetian Theatre,

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanders, Keylee Sue Living people Miss Teen USA winners Miss USA state directors People from Louisburg, Kansas 1995 beauty pageant contestants 20th-century Miss Teen USA delegates 20th-century American people 1977 births