Larissa Meek is a former beauty queen who has competed in the

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 ...

and

Miss USA Miss USA is an American beauty pageant that has been held annually since 1952 to select the entrant from United States in the Miss Universe pageant. The Miss Universe Organization operated both pageants, as well as Miss Teen USA, until 2020. ...

pageants and a

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

personality who starred in '' Average Joe: Hawaii''.

Pageants

In 1996 Meek won the

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 ...

1997 title and competed in the

1997 pageant held at

South Padre Island, Texas South Padre Island is a resort town in Cameron County, Texas, United States. It is part of the Brownsville, Texas, Brownsville–Harlingen, Texas, Harlingen Brownsville-Harlingen metropolitan area, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population w ...

. She did not place but did earn an Honorable Mention (for placing between 11th and 15th place). In 2000 she competed in the Miss Missouri USA pageant for the first time and won the title. Meek represented

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

at the

Miss USA 2001 Miss USA 2001 was the 50th Miss USA pageant, held at the Genesis Convention Center in Gary, Indiana on March 2, 2001. The event was won by Kandace Krueger of Miss Texas USA, Texas, who was crowned by outgoing queen Lynnette Cole of Miss Tenness ...

pageant telecast live from

Gary, Indiana Gary ( ) is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The population was 69,093 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it Indiana's List of municipalities in Indiana, eleventh-most populous city. The city has been historical ...

in March 2001, and made the semifinals. Meek won both the swimsuit and evening gown competitions with scores of 9.45 and 9.39 respectively and advanced to the top five but failed to make the top three after finishing last in the interview competition. She placed fourth runner-up to Texas'

Kandace Krueger Kandace Gayle Krueger Matthews (born May 27, 1976) is an American beauty pageant titleholder who won Miss USA 2001 and represented the United States in the Miss Universe 2001 where she was a finished second runner-up. Pageants Miss Texas USA ...

Reality television

In 2003 she appeared as the star of the reality television show ''Average Joe: Hawaii'', succeeding fellow Miss Missouri Teen USA and Miss Missouri USA titleholder Melana Scantlin for this role. When the show started she went on dates with "average Joes". Partway through the show, however, a bunch of "hunks" were brought in to compete against the Joes, a twist also used on the first edition of the show. When down to the final two men, Meek chose Gil Hyatt over "average Joe" Brian Worth, only to have Hyatt "reject" her after finding out that she previously had dated male supermodel

Fabio Fabio is a given name descended from Latin ''Fabius'' and very popular in Italy and Latin America (due to Italian migration). The name is written without an accent in Italian and Spanish, but is usually accented in Portuguese as ''Fábio'' (with t ...

References

External links

Miss Missouri USA & Miss Missouri Teen USA official websiteBlog of Larissa Meek
1978 births Living people 1997 beauty pageant contestants 20th-century Miss Teen USA delegates Miss USA 2001 delegates Participants in American reality television series 20th-century American people {{US-tv-bio-stub