Reilly Bauer has done it again.

The Lansford woman was recently crowned Pennsylvania Miss Amazing Junior Miss Queen.

The win follows her 2021 Miss Amazing Pennsylvania Teen Queen and Miss Amazing National Teen Queen wins.

It also follows Reilly’s bout of homelessness - an experience that she shed light on during the Miss Amazing pageant at West Chester University.

“I’ve created a platform based on my experience with homelessness, and I came into the state competition with a clear goal in mind - advocating at that event, and striving to take it to Nationals 2024,” Bauer said.

The Miss Amazing pageant is open to girls and women with special needs. Bauer, 20, is on the autism spectrum.

She explained that a few months into her national Teen Queen reign in 2021, she and her mother, Colleen, became homeless.

“So not only did I have to move schools mid-senior year while finding a new location we could go, I faced mental health challenges and it really turned my world upside down having to go through that,” Reilly said. “I had just turned 18, and suddenly I had to give away my four dogs due to lack of housing, left my hometown, I lost friends. What a way to enter adulthood, right?”

Her platform is called, “Do You See Me?”

“It advocates for breaking the cycle of poverty by speaking about my story with being homeless and how it affected me as someone with a disability,” Reilly said. “It is called ‘Do You See Me?’ because a lot of people go undiagnosed because they have an ‘unseen’ disability like me, so I want to advocate for those who feel unseen, especially those going through something like I went through.”

Reilly said that she and her mother were helped by The Factory Ministries of Paradise, Lancaster County. She recalled waiting for transitional housing and eventually being “blessed” with a place to stay after living in a hotel for several months.

“They also have a market where you can ‘grocery shop’ but for 100% free. It’s set up just like a grocery store for some normalcy for their clients,” Reilly said.

Her plan is to create an organization similar to The Factory Ministries.

Reilly spoke about autism, saying she used to be embarrassed to have it.

“I felt so different from everyone else because I struggle with understanding social cues, and metaphors, and sometimes I even feel like I’m a child next to my peers, and that can stem from past people I knew purposefully talking to me like a baby, which is insulting,” she said. “I’ve learned to ‘mask’ my autism pretty well, I would say so well, that the number 1 thing I’ve been told when telling people about me having autism is, ‘You don’t look like you have autism.’”

But she said, she is exactly what autism looks like.

“Autism is a spectrum, and advocating about that is a very important part of ‘Do You See Me’,” she explained.

Reilly said Miss Amazing changed her life ever since she first competed as a 12-year-old.

“I couldn’t even make eye contact with people,” she recalled. “Now any chance I get to be on stage, just hand me a microphone and I will entertain you. I developed a huge love for performing and I have to say, one thing about Miss Amazing is that you come in as a girl taking a leap out of her comfort zone, and you end up with a whole different mindset on what it means to have a disability. I have learned to not only accept who I am, but to embrace it.”

Reilly and contestants competed in evening gown, passion presentation (talent), onstage personal introduction and interview segments.

At the end of the pageant, judges announced the winners.

“Every time I hear my name get called it’s like the world stops. I literally have to catch my breath. Hearing the crowd roar after your name is called as Queen is something every woman with a disability should get to experience,” Reilly said. “Winning to me means that the judges see my ambition and how much time I have dedicated to showing that I am their girl, who they can trust to do this dream job, and do it well.”

Her mother said seeing Reilly win the crown “gets better every time.”

Reilly will compete on the national level in Chicago in July. Those wishing to provide monetary donations or sponsorships should send an email to Colleen at bauer-colleen@hotmail.com.

Reilly, a former Panther Valley High School student, graduated in 2022 from the Commonwealth Charter Academy.