JACKSON, Tenn. -
A new Miss Tennessee was crowned over the weekend in Jackson.
Twenty-two-year-old Chandler Lawson will represent Tennessee in the Miss America Pageant in January.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga senior won the competition Saturday night.
She told WBBJ-TV in Jackson that being Miss Tennessee has been her goal since she was seven years old when she met a former Miss Tennessee beauty queen in her classroom.
"My first encounter with Miss Tennessee was in 1997 with L.K. and she came into my classroom and she picked me out of all of these girls and I was the tallest most awkward, the girl that you would never think would become Miss Tennessee," she said.
Lawson said she plans to meet with more than 40,000 students in the weeks before the Miss America Pageant.
The first runner-up was Kristen Mosley, of Capital City, and the second runner-up was Amy Flynn, of Bristol.
