Sneaker Impact News

Beyond the Crown: Miss Earth USA Haley Grace Poe's Leadership Journey & Environmental Advocacy

• Bryan The Botanist, Bryan Huberty • Season 1 • Episode 45

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Join Sneaker Impact News host Bryan as he interviews special guest Haley Grace Poe who was crowned Miss Earth USA on July 6th, 2025, in Washington, D.C. following the premiere of the first-ever reality TV series based on a pageant in the United States, Pretty Down to Earth. She created her initiative, the Microplastic Awareness Project (MAP), to address the growing microplastic pollution crisis. Through MAP, Haley has hosted cleanups, advocated for single use plastic reduction, and initiated legislation at the state and federal level to address plastic pollution. Haley covers topics from overcoming shyness to become a leader, her passion for environmental advocacy to life as a beauty pageant contestant, and more. Please share and subscribe to the channel to help us spread more awareness and education. Thank you!

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Instagram: @haleygracepoe @microplastic.awareness.project @missearthusa

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Bryan The Botanist:

Welcome back to Sneaker Impact News. My special guest today is Haley Grace Poe. Miss Earth USA. Welcome, Haley. How are you?

Haley Grace Poe:

Thank you so much. I am doing great. How are you?

Bryan The Botanist:

Awesome. We're so excited to have you on today. Um, so quick intro and then have some questions. Um, so Haley Grace Poe is crowned Miss Earth USA on July 6th in Washington DC following the premier of the first ever reality TV series based on a pageant in the United States Pretty Down To Earth. She created her initiative, the Microplastic Awareness Project to address the growing microplastic pollution crisis. Through MAP Haley's hosted cleanups, advocated for single use plastic reduction, and initiated legislation at the state and federal level to address plastic pollution. On top of that, she's a pre-med student, so, wow., Welcome to the podcast.

Haley Grace Poe:

Thank you so much for having me. I'm so happy to be here to be able to talk about my advocacy and the pageant and everything going on, and it's so cool to be here because I actually met Moe in Miami while I was doing an appearance as Miss Earth USA.

Bryan The Botanist:

Wow. So how did you meet Moe?

Haley Grace Poe:

Yeah, so I was on an appearance in Miami and I did an interview with South Florida Live, and right after me, Moe did his interview with South Florida Live. So we were chatting in the green room a little bit and found that pretty much everybody in that room had some sort of connection to sustainability, and he connected me with you to do the podcast and a few other people so that I could work on my microplastics mission in Miami a little bit. So hopefully I'll be able to get down there again soon before I give up my title. But it was really cool to meet him.

Bryan The Botanist:

That's so cool. Yeah. He came into the office. He is like, I met Miss Earth. I was like, whoa. That's so cool. And then, um, we've been chatting for a couple weeks to set this up. We've both been pretty busy. You've been traveling, right.

Haley Grace Poe:

Yes, I just got home from New York City and then Delaware. I've been gone for 10

Bryan The Botanist:

Wow. Where is home?

Haley Grace Poe:

I live in Erie, Pennsylvania, so I'm back home in the pageant room. This is the pageant basement and this is where all the magic happens and the prep. So I am happy to be home for a little bit before I leave for the Philippines.

Bryan The Botanist:

Awesome. Okay, so the first thing I wanna ask you about is winning Miss Earth USA, which you won in the last year and you were recognized this summer. So tell us what Miss Earth means.

Haley Grace Poe:

Miss Earth is the only pageant recognized as an environmental conservation organization by the United Nations. So everyone from the International Pageant Down has an environmental platform. And I really love that about this organization because I think we're able to make a bigger impact because we're all working towards the same thing and we all tackle different aspects of sustainability. So we also do a great job of raising awareness through the competition and through social media and all of the media interviews that we do between winning national titles and competing at this earth. So it's a great way to celebrate sustainability and bring together a lot of different people with similar causes. Um, for me this year has been really interesting because Miss Earth USA decided to do something very revolutionary, and we had the first ever reality TV series about a pageant in the US and it was part of the competition. So I became Miss Pennsylvania Earth in July of 2024, and I competed in the preliminary competition for Miss Earth USA in January of 2025 and was named one of the top 12 national finalists. And the top 12 competed for an additional six months through social media challenges and then recording the reality TV series in May of 2025. And the series was released. Its six episodes between June and July, and then I was crowned in the final episode on July 6th. So it was a very long process. Um, but I really love the show because it celebrates different aspects of sustainability and all of our personal journeys, and we did a lot of really fun activities. So if you watch it, there's

Bryan The Botanist:

Where can people watch it?

Haley Grace Poe:

It's on the Queen Beauty Network, so that's a network similar to a streaming service that focuses specifically on pageantry and modeling. So everything Miss Earth, USA is out there for you to watch. We did an obstacle course, we did beekeeping. There were speaking challenges, like it was very interesting

Bryan The Botanist:

Where did they have it based out of?

Haley Grace Poe:

it was filmed in upstate New York, so our obstacle course was on Lake Oneida and we traveled to different areas of Syracuse and upstate New York, which I had never been there before, and it's really beautiful, so definitely worth

Bryan The Botanist:

You're from Pennsylvania is Erie near or is that closer to the Great Lakes? Lake Erie.

Haley Grace Poe:

Yes, I am. I live about 20 minutes from the lake, so we are right here with Presque Isle State Park, which it's a western facing peninsula, so we have the most beautiful sunset views from the lake. It is just gorgeous. Um, I think we nationally rank like number five for best sunsets in the world actually. So, Yeah. Beautiful place.

Bryan The Botanist:

Yeah. So how did you get started in environmental advocacy'cause I know you founded MAP, which I want to get into next. And we're gonna come back to Miss Earth as well. But how did you get started in advocacy and passion for the Earth?

Haley Grace Poe:

Yeah, so I'm a pre-medical student and during my time as a pre-medical student, I learned about environmentalism because Gannon University where I graduated from, has a lot of programs for sustainable architecture and making our campus very sustainable. So as I was taking my biology classes, I learned a lot about environmental factors that impact our health. And going into the medical field, one of my goals is to eliminate certain environmental pollutants that do harm our health because there's only so much we can do once a person is already sick. It is far more efficient to have a healthier planet and then ultimately have healthier people at the same time. So I found the Miss Earth pageant and I created my initiative, the Microplastic Awareness Project, and I've been working on that ever since.

Bryan The Botanist:

Amazing. Yeah. Map. It's a cool name. And I interviewed someone a couple months ago from Perg and she told us a lot about the plastic pellet pollution crisis and how the pellets are constantly getting lost because accidents happen and spillage, and then the wind and like even people forgetting to close the door or close a valve and like the trains spewing plastic all the way down. But microplastics, and we were talking a lot on that episode about, um, cleanups, which you're also passionate about, is a big passion of mine. So I really wanna make sure this conversation, we're gonna get into the cleanups in a little bit, but first, going back to how you got started, what was the turning point in your life to create your awareness?

Haley Grace Poe:

For me, that came over time in college as I learned more about ecosystem biology and how everything connects, and half of my biology concentration is actually in marine biology near the lake and interacting with different research and fisheries. I found that plastic pollution was a major issue in one of the biggest ways that we consume microplastics is through seafood. So that was information that I gathered. Yeah.

Bryan The Botanist:

A lot of cultures depend on fish or how are we gonna reduce that impact? How did you spread the message during this earth about microplastics?

Haley Grace Poe:

That is one component of my advocacy. I do love to talk about water contamination because I think that's the most obvious way that we consume microplastics and plastic bottles are a huge part of our lives a lot of the time, and I try to encourage people to switch to a reusable water bottle as much

Bryan The Botanist:

here though. I got at an event. Yeah, it's in a can and it's got a recycle symbol on it.

Haley Grace Poe:

Yeah, absolutely. I love that so much. And I just had when I was in New York fashion, yeah. That's so important.

Bryan The Botanist:

Tell us more tips that you learned during Miss Earth and your journey.

Haley Grace Poe:

Yeah, so we know that one of the biggest contributors to climate change is fast fashion. So I always encourage people to focus on sustainable clothing and especially natural fibers over synthetic fibers. So I just modeled for a designer named CH of Acho at New York Fashion Week, and she is a sustainable fashion designer based out of the Philippines, and she makes a lot of her clothing out of banana fibers she also uses pedal machines, so there's no electricity used in making her designs. So

Bryan The Botanist:

Do you know the process, how they

Haley Grace Poe:

You actually pedal the yeah. It takes longer because you have to process the banana into

Bryan The Botanist:

just take the peel and like No, you have to like

Haley Grace Poe:

Yeah, the thing makes it into thread

Bryan The Botanist:

Um, so tell us other things you learned about in Miss USA before we transitioned to the Philippines.

Haley Grace Poe:

Yeah, so it was really cool to be able to interact with other contestants platforms as well, because everyone is focused on something different. So I have a friend who focuses on animal conservation, and she has a lot of exotic pets, and she loves to talk about how we can get involved with supporting conservation, either by donating or adopting instead of shopping from pet stores. I think especially for me working with sea turtles a little bit during my time as Miss Earth USA and as a national finalist for Miss Earth USA, there are certain types of pollution that cause species to eventually deteriorate. So we know that sea turtles are endangered and a lot of the reason for that is light pollution because baby sea turtles use the moon to navigate through the water. And light pollution on our coastlines and on our

Bryan The Botanist:

From hotels and homes and streets. Yeah. We have that down here in Miami where I'm based. So I, um, have done sea turtle hatchling releases with the university in Hollywood, Florida I think it was Nova Southeastern

Haley Grace Poe:

I just did a release with it was so cool to learn about all of the different teams that they have there for sea turtle conservation. And I was actually there with our Miss US International Nikki can up because we have the same production team. And Nikki and I were there for our official photos'cause we're both going to international pageants this fall. And we went to this turtle release with Nova Southeastern University and um, we didn't have a car, so we didn't have a way to get from the university where they were doing the education before. Yeah. And so

Bryan The Botanist:

Was it in like an auditorium with like where it's a little bit, yeah, we did the exact same one, and then you have to drive down to a release point that's about, it's in the dark, it's that night.

Haley Grace Poe:

So our guide, let us ride with her. And I was sitting in the backseat with the bucket of

Bryan The Botanist:

Oh my God, you really got a front row. They don't want you to use your cameras on. When during the release, did they say

Haley Grace Poe:

they do. They do actually. Yeah. You just flash. Yeah, they let us record.

Bryan The Botanist:

maybe. They said no flashes for us. This was, I did it about two years ago. Yeah,

Haley Grace Poe:

Yeah. It was

Bryan The Botanist:

don't wanna distract them from the ocean, but they let them do It themselves, which I thought was really cool.

Haley Grace Poe:

mm-hmm. It was hard too,'cause it was storming the day that we were there, so the water was really choppy. So the sea turtles would make their way to it and then the waves would throw them back onto the beach and they would keep trying and keep

Bryan The Botanist:

They got wore out from the whole day. Yeah.

Haley Grace Poe:

Yeah.

Bryan The Botanist:

That's so cool. So sea turtles and marine biology is something you're very passionate about. Um, what other parts of the microplastic story do you wanna highlight?

Haley Grace Poe:

Yeah, so a big part of what I do through MAP is host cleanups, and of course we have Presque Isle State Park here. So we love to take care of our beaches, but our parks and our forests are also just as important and no matter where you live, it's always worth doing a cleanup. So I would love to see more national cleanup efforts. And one of the sponsors that we have is Garbo Grabber, and I love working with them because it's this like plastic ring that keeps the trash bag open. And then you also have the grabbers. So if you have people who have back issues or knee issues, they can also participate in cleanups and it's a lot easier in your body that

Bryan The Botanist:

I've got good knees, but I have two herniated discs in my back and I have a really nice grabber. My friend gave it to me who also has some, I'm a runner, so I'm okay now, but I learned from doing a lot of cleanups and I did river cleanups recently in the last couple years that I got sick from, because I got too much of the river in my mouth and all over my body. I was, we were getting stuff off the river floor first. We just started getting it. All these manatees, little river near our studio here. So, and I got really sick from a couple different cleanups how do you organize them and can you tell us more about, you know, the sponsor? I didn't catch the name. So

Haley Grace Poe:

Yes, the sponsor is Garbo Grabber. So you can order Garbo, GARO. Yeah. Yep.

Bryan The Botanist:

Garbo Grabber. Okay,

Haley Grace Poe:

Yes. So you can order those online and it's like a whole kit that comes and it has the trash bags and the thing that keeps the trash bag open, and then also the reachers. Um, and that just makes the whole process a lot more efficient. So we've been much faster working with those than any other

Bryan The Botanist:

So let's continue the conversation. Um, I really wanna jump into International Miss Earth. So now that you've won Miss USA, you're gonna represent the US in the Philippines. Can you tell us more about when that takes place and what the process is like?

Haley Grace Poe:

Yeah. I leave on October 18th to fly to Manila, and I will be there for about three weeks to compete for the title of Miss Earth and the finals competition, or the coronation is on November 5th. And if I win, I have to stay an additional week to do media. Um, but if not, I will come home on November 7th. And we don't have a schedule or anything. It's very much as I like to call it cowboy style, which is similar to how we did the reality TV show where you have no idea what you're gonna be doing on a given day. You just come prepared. And they would tell us like what hair and makeup to do and what to bring. And then we would show up and do a challenge. And it will be very similar to that, where we're just kind of ready to go. And you have to be on and

Bryan The Botanist:

you bring a team with you, support staff? How do you

Haley Grace Poe:

Just me.

Bryan The Botanist:

really, so you do your hair and all of your makeup, and how does your hair and makeup also, how does that build into your ethos? Do you use products that are earth friendly?

Haley Grace Poe:

Yes, I really love to support cruelty food brands. So one that we like to work with all the time is Beauty by Lady Code. Um, you can shop their products on the Lady Code Shop, and we actually have a Miss Earth USA collaboration palette that is being launched this week. I believe it's called The Story of You, but don't quote me on that. We did a palette pitch competition for the show, so there's an eyeshadow palette coming out for that. And then one of my favorite brands to support is Tart because they're vegan and cruelty free in all of their products, and I have found that that works really well for me. I just started using Dermalogica because I have really dry eczema prone skin, and they're a vegan and cruelty-free brand, and that has worked really, really well for me. I had tried so many different things to get rid of my eczema, and nothing helps the way that their moisturizer does. Like it was gone

Bryan The Botanist:

eczema, you get like the dry, like kind of dry

Haley Grace Poe:

would get like patches and, um, yeah, it was the worst. Yeah, so it helps a lot. It's pretty too, so, um, that was really nice. Um, but I love that. And then I also love to tell people as well, don't play with the sun. Don't think that you're gonna go out there and get a great tan and it's gonna be fine. I really think sunscreen every single time, because when I was getting my biology degree and I took microbiology, we did an experiment with UV lights, um, killing certain bacteria, like different kinds of bacteria and how long it would take, and watching the efficiency of UV in killing cells.

Bryan The Botanist:

Wow. Yeah. Red being in the sun for five minutes. It changes your biology in a certain way, and I forget now, but it's something to do with either your brain or your, I know your penal glands absorbing. That's during sunsets too. You get the beautiful sunsets. Uh, we get them too in like Key West. Um, but, uh. Um, we get the sunrises in Miami. Uh, what we're known for, but we can't wait to have you come visit us, Haley, because we wanna show you the operations here and um, also do it in person. But it's so cool, like a lot of our passions align. So like, I feel like anything you do, make sure to tag us and like keep us aware, um, so we can support you. Um,

Haley Grace Poe:

I gotta get back to Miami. I have so much to

Bryan The Botanist:

yeah. Have you ever visited Miami before? Oh, you came, I'm sorry, when you were here recently. You were in Miami.

Haley Grace Poe:

Yeah. And then I was in Miami briefly in December of last year, and I went to Key West and I did, um, I visited the Marathon Turtle Hospital

Bryan The Botanist:

went there too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I did a tour,

Haley Grace Poe:

so

Bryan The Botanist:

I did the whole tour two years ago. Yeah, it's right by Baia Honda in Marathon. I'd always wanted to go there. Yeah. It's so cool. they have a hundred percent obviously volunteer driven, I believe it's a nonprofit, but like they are rescuing so many and then they have the ones that have to stay there permanently that have been hit by the boats, that have the, the humpback.

Haley Grace Poe:

Yeah, I sponsored one.

Bryan The Botanist:

Oh, nice. Yeah. I think we got a bracelet, me and my friend who went, um, that helped support them. So tell us, about the Philippines. You're gonna be there for two or three weeks, Have you been there before? You said you have some contacts there?

Haley Grace Poe:

No, I, I do know some people there because I have to compete there, so I am of building relationships in that area because I'm on my way

Bryan The Botanist:

And you're going to Manila. To

Haley Grace Poe:

I'm going to Manila.

Bryan The Botanist:

That's a major city, right? It's huge.

Haley Grace Poe:

yes. It's like their version of our Las Vegas.

Bryan The Botanist:

Oh, really? Okay.

Haley Grace Poe:

Yes. I'll be at a resort. It'll be kind of in a area of resorts on the

Bryan The Botanist:

Is there, um, an Instagram channel for, uh, miss Earth?

Haley Grace Poe:

yes, it's just Miss

Bryan The Botanist:

Okay. I'm gonna make sure to follow that.'cause then maybe we'll get to see some live, some behind the scenes share you on.

Haley Grace Poe:

Yeah. I believe the competition will be on YouTube live as well. They are about 12 hours ahead of us, so it does take place at 6:00 AM EST, um, to watch it on November 5th, but I'll keep everybody posted with the

Bryan The Botanist:

12 women compete.

Haley Grace Poe:

one will be, I think, 70 or 80 contestants. It was a top 12 when I competed for my national title, and since I'm in this earth, USA now going international, I believe it'll be at least 70 and

Bryan The Botanist:

70 countries everyone's representing. Wow. So you're gonna get to meet people from all over the world. How I, I was just gonna say how excited outta 10 are you

Haley Grace Poe:

Yeah, I, um, I started meeting some of the girls on Instagram already and our Hong Kong delegate is actually at Columbia University right now in New York. So she saw that I was in NYC and reached out, and that was just the coolest. I'm really excited to network with environmental advocates from around the world. It'll be cool to ask them about their experiences and their countries and just get to know everybody.

Bryan The Botanist:

everyone speak in their own language? For the most part.

Haley Grace Poe:

Um, I believe so. The competition is conducted in English, but you can use a translator if you need one.

Bryan The Botanist:

Is there a judge panel?

Haley Grace Poe:

Yes,

Bryan The Botanist:

cool. I'm so excited to learn more and I'm glad to hear this was the first I knew about a Miss Earth, and I just thought, that's such a great idea because it takes it to the next level.

Haley Grace Poe:

Yeah, so there are four big international pageant systems that are recognized as the Big Four, and those are Miss Universe, miss World, miss International, and Miss Earth. So we are the only one that is environmentally

Bryan The Botanist:

Can you tell us a little bit more about how you were raised and about your family

Haley Grace Poe:

yeah, I was born in Huntsville, Alabama. My whole family is actually from the south and I lived in Huntsville until I was 10 and then we moved to Pennsylvania. Um, where I'm from in Huntsville is actually referred to as Rocket City because we have NASA there. So I grew up going to the space center and I've always been interested in astronomy and I have a telescope and I still go outside and kind of follow the moon cycles and take pictures of the moon through my telescope. So I need to pull that out for fall, actually. That'll be a lot of fun. But, um. Moved to Pennsylvania when I was 10. I was raised by a single mom and so she and I are very close and she actually competed in pageants when she was my age. So I have like a built-in coach and we have a really great relationship about it and it's our fun hobby that we've done together for many years and it's been really cool to experience that women empowerment with my mom, who is also very focused on female empowerment too. So we've had a great time with it and it's been a really developmental experience for me because I was very shy and had a lot of social anxiety when I was younger and I started competing when I was 16 in pageantry has really helped me come out of my shell and like I do speaking engagements every single week. So that is my favorite part of the job. It is probably 95% of the job is talking and serving as an advocate and it's just been my favorite thing. I actually won, um, high score and interview for Miss Earth USA, which was such an achievement for me. Um,

Bryan The Botanist:

You won the interview section.

Haley Grace Poe:

Yes, I won the interview round of competition and it was 40% of our overall score. So going from being very shy and not really liking to talk so much and interview being my weak spot to winning interview for the pageant and bringing home the national title really meant the world to me.

Bryan The Botanist:

Wow. That's really cool. So it helps build your character, your strengths works on your weaknesses too. Yeah, it develops you into a full person. I'm sure that's the mission of the pageant too,

Haley Grace Poe:

absolutely.

Bryan The Botanist:

while also spreading awareness about important environmental topics. Um, so when you go to pre-med, do you have a interest of focus that you're gonna look into or are you gonna explore that kind of

Haley Grace Poe:

Yeah, I am most interested in endocrinology. I have polycystic ovary syndrome, and it took seven years for me to get a diagnosis for that. And when we finally got my blood test back, they said that I either had a small brain tumor in the pituitary gland or PCOS, so they reran my labs and found that I did have PCOS. And looking back on that experience, I was just shocked that they could have missed a tumor for seven years. And that inspired me to go into the medical field because there's no reason why anyone should ever have to suffer for that long without an explanation. And so I'm interested in endocrinology so that I can become the doctor that I didn't have when I was younger. And we also know that microplastics are major endocrine disruptors, so there's a lot to be done in that field, environmentally and just in

Bryan The Botanist:

A lot of chemicals are endocrine disruptors, so I am all a hundred percent for your mission. I think it's something that, and hopefully AI is here to help us with that. How did, what's your take on that?

Haley Grace Poe:

There are situations in which it makes sense and is helpful and more efficient to use ai. But I think we need to be careful about how often we take the shortcut, because I know that for me, when it comes to preparing for a pageant, it's really easy to have AI generated caption, but it will serve me better to take the time, even if it's an extra hour, to write something from the heart and use it as preparation, because that helps me when I go to give a speech or do an interview like this one, or compete on a stage because I've done the prep work ahead of time. So I think when it comes to anything, whether that's. School or pageant prep or any sort of work, knowing when to use chat GPT and when not to is very important.

Bryan The Botanist:

So true. But in terms of environmental advocacy and legislation, which we're gonna jump in next, I could see AI being good for helping with data collection, with trends, with, recommendations.

Haley Grace Poe:

Yeah a large part of my work with MAP is also legislation for the environment and for microplastics. And I have used chat GPT before to research legislation that already exists and where there are maybe gaps in legislation states that have previously banned things like plastic bags. Pulling data from sample studies. So it's very efficient at collecting information and me not being someone who has a law degree and not being a politician, it is very useful to have a tool that can collect that information for me. And then I use that information to come up with my pitches for bills that I would like to see introduced in pieces of legislation that I think would be helpful. And then I write out my pitch and how I want to present that information. And I always come with a few different ideas for laws and I pitch them to my representatives. And fun fact, no one has ever told me no. So, and that's both political parties,

Bryan The Botanist:

this is, so tell us, where do you present this? At the state level? At the federal level.

Haley Grace Poe:

So to initiate legislation, you just have to schedule a meeting with a representative. It can be at the state level, it can be at the federal level. It can be anybody that represents you. It can even be someone who doesn't represent your district. Um, you just wanna go and. Speak about what you believe would be helpful. The hardest part is honestly getting a meeting. You just have to be perseverant. And that is one thing that I will say I'm so grateful for, uh, with being Miss Earth USA, because I get in the door very easily, that title and that sparkly crown. The most useful thing about it is the doors that you can get into. So being able to schedule those meetings and then sit down with representatives and say, okay, here are the gaps in the legislation. This is what I would like to see done. And then having them take that and then write a bill and then have it introduced. I actually had house Bill 1415 introduced in the state of Pennsylvania back in April. And if passed that will require annual water testing for PFAS, which is a cancer causing chemical found in microplastics, in our watersheds across the state. So that will give us data where we can identify hotspots for plastic pollution and then address it as well.

Bryan The Botanist:

Amazing. Yeah. PFAS are forever chemicals. Right. Yeah. Um, amazing. So you got that introduced and is it, you said it's still in the process of getting passed?

Haley Grace Poe:

is still in the process. It's the sort of thing where the million dollar question is always, when will it be passed? When will we know if it's going to be passed? And it goes to committee and it's currently in committee right now and being edited and they're finalizing the budget right now. And eventually there will be a meeting and it will either pass through the House of Representatives and then go to the Senate where it will be in committee for a little bit longer. Um. Or it will go back to committee and be edited some more. And that process happens as many times as it needs to. Or they might say, okay, no, we don't think this is useful. Um, but there might be an opportunity for me to be able to speak at committee to justify why this bill is important. So I'm keeping an eye out for those opportunities and I have been tracking it, so I've been babysitting it a little bit to see if there's anything I can do to help, even from an awareness perspective, because I do think this sort of change begins with awareness. And that's why I always encourage people, you don't have to be a politician. You don't have to be a pageant title holder to make a difference. You just have to be willing to speak. It takes one person calling their representative and having those conversations to get legislation introduced. And I think we forget that politicians are not biologists, they're not teachers, they don't. Live the jobs that need additional legislation and support. So people who have things that they need legislation for, need to schedule those meetings because if we don't talk about it, they're not aware that there's a problem and they don't know how to help.

Bryan The Botanist:

that's true. Yeah. Um, so do you, are, is MAP gonna take on volunteers or other staff and go work in other states and other issues besides. The water testing right now in the area you're focusing on.

Haley Grace Poe:

That would be really cool. I use MAP as my umbrella for all of the work that I do in environmentalism, but it would be very interesting to expand it and make it national. I think that is one thing that I have looked at with my legacy as Miss Earth USA, is maybe incorporating that as part of our beauties for a cause. USA nonprofit organization that is a 5 0 1 C3 and it is the nonprofit that belongs to Miss Earth USA. So we do all of our advocacy through that. And there are a few organizations underneath that like um, I think it's We Clean Trails is one of them, and in the Soshi Rose Wellness Foundation, which is for mental health, I would love to see MAP Incorporated into that where we can have more advocates in the pageant system working on plastic pollution.

Bryan The Botanist:

Yeah. And you can link up with citizen-based monitoring, like perg.

Haley Grace Poe:

That's perfect.

Bryan The Botanist:

You guys have the same, the same area of microplastics, so I'm sure she can help you. Um, okay. So let's see what else we wanna chat about today. Um, the reality TV show, we didn't really talk a lot about that. Um, what was like the funniest moment of that or

Haley Grace Poe:

Oh, the funniest moment. There were many funny moments. I will say our showrunner Derek had this, um, running like phrase that he uses all the time and it's heck yeah. And um, so whenever something was set, he'd be like, heck yeah. And then we'd go and film it. And um, two of our cast members in the top 12 actually had heck yeah, tattooed onto their feet. Um, where like our pageant shoe straps go, um. On our shoes. It is the cutest thing ever. So that was pretty funny. I think my favorite highlight though, is the obstacle course because I pulled a kayak into a 42 degree lake and then ran back with it. I am a runner, so that was really fun to showcase my capabilities.'cause I got my mile time down to about six minutes and 15 seconds for the TV series.'cause I had no idea what they were gonna have us do. So I was preparing like it was gonna be Survivor Island because I didn't know, I actually went rock climbing too, because they told us there might be a heights challenge and I'm afraid of heights. So I wanted to get that exposure therapy before going and there were no heights challenges, but I still got it outta my system. So I'm proud of that.

Bryan The Botanist:

So you pulled a kayak into the water. Did they, have you kayak or did they just, it was an obstacle

Haley Grace Poe:

No, it was too choppy to actually kayak, so just ran it out there. It was about stomach height.

Bryan The Botanist:

So they just have you like get it in the water and bring it back up. But there's a whole course of stuff you're doing like running to

Haley Grace Poe:

Yeah, so we were um, at different stations. So there were I think six different things that we had to do in the obstacle course. And there were 12 of us, so we were on two teams, and my thing was to run into the lake and collect some ladder balls and then come back and pass the ladder balls onto the next contestant who would then play ladder ball. And that was the last task in the obstacle course.

Bryan The Botanist:

It sounds like it's a really supportive group of women, like from the USA level to now being on the global level, like you guys are all friends and,

Haley Grace Poe:

Yeah.

Bryan The Botanist:

um, how do they encourage everyone to be kind and to like live with and operate with integrity?

Haley Grace Poe:

That's so funny because they don't need to, and I think that's a huge misconception with pageantry where people think because it's a competitive thing between women that we don't get along. Yeah. It's really like. We are all competitive people, but we also love women empowerment and we love getting to know other women who push us to be better people. So it's cool because you kind of meet women who are overachievers in their own way, and we can all share our own experiences. And I will tell you that when we weren't filming, we stayed up until two or 3:00 AM voluntarily every single night just chitchatting in the condo.

Bryan The Botanist:

I think it's so Important what Miss Earth is doing'cause it's really teaching young women and it's getting awareness on a global scale that it needs. I didn't realize it was out there, so I'm so glad to learn that and that you crossed paths with our team. Um,

Haley Grace Poe:

Me too.

Bryan The Botanist:

Can you share your socials

Haley Grace Poe:

absolutely I have a series on YouTube called The Life of a Pageant Girl, miss Earth USA travel Vlogs. And every trip I go on as Miss Earth USA I make a YouTube video documenting everything that I did. So if you wanna see what it's like to travel as Miss Earth USA, you can check out my YouTube, it's Haley Grace Poe, and then my TikTok and Instagram and Facebook are also all just Haley Grace Poe. And you can also check out the Miss Earth USA account on Instagram and Facebook and the Miss Earth account on Instagram and Facebook as well. Those are definitely worth checking out. There's a lot of information on there. You can learn so much about environmentalism and get to meet the candidates because they've started sharing our advocacy posts. We had to send in at least five service posts, um, to be shared on the Miss Earth Account for Competition. So I submitted mine a few weeks ago and they're being released. So you can see all the work that we're doing there.

Bryan The Botanist:

Awesome. Is the public involved in the voting process or is it mainly the judges?

Haley Grace Poe:

The public can vote for people's choice. So we will have voting on even tota for different events. So let's say the figure and form competition, it's open where the public can watch the live stream of it and then you can vote for your favorite candidate for that. And then I believe they award certain spots in the top 20 to People's Choice vote winners.

Bryan The Botanist:

Okay, cool. We're getting closer to the end, but is there any topics you wanna continue to chat about? Like how do you stay consistent as a pageant contestant, consistency I find is the most important thing in life besides maybe integrity and attitude. How do you stay strong and. Continue to be hopeful in a world that sometimes is full of problems and issues like pollution and microplastics.

Haley Grace Poe:

The thing that makes me feel so honored and grateful and humbled to be here every single day is the consistent willingness of people to help. Because I have found that people are good and they want to make a difference in the world, and they wanna feel like their life has meaning. And a lot of people just don't know how to get involved. So if you spread awareness for things like environmentalism and you provide opportunities for people to help either through a cleanup or by calling their representatives and supporting legislation, people will always say yes. They'll always say yes to helping and making a difference in the world. And I think that just goes to show that humanity and society are good, and we have the potential to change the world if we are willing to work together. And that has helped me stay very consistent on this journey because I consider it a lifestyle and not pageant prep. I get up in the morning and I run every day because I like to run, and that's how I stay fit. I don't do that because I'm competing in a pageant right now. So it's all about living your authentic life where I am an environmentalist and I am an advocate, and I live that every day. It's not just prep.

Bryan The Botanist:

Amazing. Yeah. Authenticity is so important I gonna ask you one more question? Oh, yeah. You mentioned mental health earlier. Talk with us about how young women, how they can prevent some of the issues

Haley Grace Poe:

yeah, I think what you have to remember is that facetune is free and all of those apps are free, and you never know what is edited and what is not edited. And honestly, whether it is edited or not doesn't really matter. You have to learn to protect your own mental space. And I will tell you that I have had screen time limitations on all of my social media apps that I put there myself since I was a teenager, because I've found that to be very helpful. And I think having those boundaries and that self-discipline when it comes to screen time and being on the internet and spending too much time looking at things that don't make you feel too good about yourself is very important, especially as a young woman today.

Bryan The Botanist:

So having a limit to it is, yeah. I've seen people use that where it limits their app use to like five minutes or something. That's really

Haley Grace Poe:

Yep. Yeah,

Bryan The Botanist:

And are you guys working with younger women?

Haley Grace Poe:

of course, every day. Because we're a pageant organization, so I actually, yeah, there are actually several age divisions of pageant girls under me who are also national title holders. So when I crown my successor in January, we also have a teen and a junior teen and a little miss. And we have lots of young women of all generations different ages competing for national titles and exploring the environmental space through Miss Earth USA, even as children. And I think that's so cool. So part of my job and being Miss Earth USA is also to inspire young women to get involved in environmentalism and to build their confidence through pageantry as well.

Bryan The Botanist:

amazing. Yeah. That's great. Okay, so quick flash round. Do you have like two more minutes?

Haley Grace Poe:

Yeah, totally.

Bryan The Botanist:

your favorite food?

Haley Grace Poe:

My favorite food. Um, chicken off

Bryan The Botanist:

be a liquid, it has to be actual food.

Haley Grace Poe:

can't be a liquid. That's very interesting. Um, so I can't say a soup. I'm not

Bryan The Botanist:

What's your favorite food?

Haley Grace Poe:

Um, I really love crab Rainin goons. That's a little random, but they bring me so much joy.

Bryan The Botanist:

So that's one of your favorite, like comfort foods. Um, what's your favorite sport to participate in?

Haley Grace Poe:

I'm not a sport person, but I am a ballet dancer,

Bryan The Botanist:

that can count. Um, what's your favorite pair of sh uh, shoes to wear when you're running?

Haley Grace Poe:

when I'm running. Um, I wear a lot of Nike Air Maxes'cause I run on concrete quite a bit. But I bet you have a better recommendation for

Bryan The Botanist:

mean, at least those have cushioning. I mean, I wear asics, um, they're called the mega Blast or the super blast, but they're pretty high level. Um, I'm running in the Chicago Marathon in three weeks, and so I've

Haley Grace Poe:

good luck.

Bryan The Botanist:

been training all summer. Yeah. And I'm, they're definitely, I just say to get a good shoe with cushioning. Um, that you have a specialty running store look, have a specialist look at your gate because you might need something with stability. Um, okay, so how about, um, where's the number one? Where if you could go to one place in the world, where do you want to go to

Haley Grace Poe:

well right now, Manila,'cause I'm on my way to

Bryan The Botanist:

but you're going there anyways. So let's say you get to go anywhere in the world.

Haley Grace Poe:

I love Italian food and I am dying to go to Italy just to eat my way across the country.

Bryan The Botanist:

Okay. Italy? Yeah, I've been there a couple times. I love it. Um, is there anything that really sticks out to you that helped in your development? Like a challenge?

Haley Grace Poe:

I think one of the things that we forget about all the time, because I started competing when I was 16 in pageantry and my peers did not understand it. They didn't see why I would be interested in that. They didn't understand why it was important and I was actually made fun of for competing in pageants. And now I'm Miss Earth USA and I have legislation and a platform and I'm on my way to medical school. And I have to say for young people who are interested in something greater than themselves already, even at such a young age, regardless of what anyone has to say about it, just stay committed to that because I am so glad that I sacrificed social time and people who could have been my friends, but really didn't have my best interest at heart, um, when I was a young person because now I am very grateful to be where I am. So just stay the course. If you're someone who has unusual hobbies and you wanna make a difference in the world, and that's not always popular when you're a teenager.

Bryan The Botanist:

Yeah. Yeah. That, that's a good point though. Like if your passion doesn't align necessarily with your best friends, you should look into why are you so passionate? Because it's easy to get distracted and just also it's easy to hang out with the wrong crowd. Um, but, um, it's really cool that you were just really had your focus on. That from a young age because I, it's, it's really defined and helped build you. So,

Haley Grace Poe:

Yeah,

Bryan The Botanist:

um, and your big challenge when I was thinking too, was also you had that medical issue with, that you overcame. So that was, and you're raising awareness about. Um, awesome. Well, Haley is so nice to have you on today. Do you, um, do you have any final thoughts you wanna share with the audience? Um, otherwise, um, we will stay in touch.

Haley Grace Poe:

Yes. How can I support Sneaker Impact and how can other pageant girls who are interested in environmentalism support Sneaker

Bryan The Botanist:

that's a great question. Yeah. Um, thank you so much. Best question of the podcast that, um, besides just learning about you, um, is, it's so simple. They can just go to Sneaker Impact dot com and click Recycle Your Sneakers. It says, do you want a bag shipped to you or do you wanna host a box at your business? Most people want a bag shipped to them, you just give us your address name. And I think your email. And then we ship you a free bag that has a FedEx label on it, and then you can put as many as seven pairs of shoes in there. And then you just seal it shut and take it to FedEx office or CVS and then just give it to them. So yes, people can get involved anywhere in the 50 states. We collect the shoes and send them to 20 plus countries. They're repaired and resold and create jobs and essential footwear and reduce waste. Thank you for asking that question about Sneaker Impact. Thank you for being part of our movement and congratulations on winning Miss Earth USA And good luck at Miss Worlds,

Haley Grace Poe:

you so much.

Bryan The Botanist:

in Philippines and Manila, and it was just amazing to have you on the podcast, get to know you and learn about your inspiring story for women and for the whole earth.

Haley Grace Poe:

Thank you so much for having me. It's always an honor to be able to share about Miss Earth USA and Miss Earth and my journey because I've worked very hard to be here and I love what you guys are doing and it's amazing to be able to support that. So thank you.

Bryan The Botanist:

Thank you. Definitely. Yeah, we wanna have episode two next time you're in Miami. And guys, check her out on YouTube at Haley Grace Poe, Instagram, Facebook, and check out Miss Earth on those channels as well. And best wishes, Haley on the Philippines journey. All right, thanks for joining us today guys. Thanks Haley.

Haley Grace Poe:

You. Bye.

Contributor

Bryan “The Botanist” Huberty

Host