Boone County’s Reina

A reprieve from the thick heat outside, families sat side by side inside the Boone County Fairgrounds building, waiting for the judge’s decision on who would be the 2025 Boone County Fair Queen. Zelania Brooks and Christina Cox were the last two without a trophy in hand, looking expectantly at the announcer to see who would be crowned.

With a long, dramatic pause, the announcer revealed the new Boone County Fair Queen: Christina Cox of Centralia.

The announcement is one Cox has grown used to after a lifetime of pageantry experience. Cox is turning 19 in late July and already has nearly two decades of experience in the pageantry scene in Boone County and throughout Missouri, having won Miss Kansas City’s Teen in 2024 and Miss Columbia’s Teen in 2023.

She’s been participating in the fair pageant since she was only 1 and has won every title in the Boone County Fair Royalty Pageant at some point, other than Little Miss.

“Back then, I was too shy to perform on stage,” Cox said.

Cox, a sophomore at Truman State University pursuing a degree in occupational therapy and an alum of Hickman High School, took a break from pageantry during her first year of college to focus on the experience.

“You’re making appearances,” Cox said when describing her experience preparing to compete for Miss Missouri’s Teen. “You’re putting in community service hours. It’s kind of like a full-time job.”

Although Cox can remember specific details of the different types of rides or the exact spot she was standing from a memory years ago, there is one memory she looks forward to reliving every year. Every time she adds another crown to her collection, Cox and her mother share a funnel cake at the fair to commemorate the pageant win, a tradition they’ve followed since her first Boone County Fair win as Princess in 2016.

Cox loves the pageantry and the performing, but at the end of the day what she loves most is the platform it gives her.

“With that crown and sash, you may not think it, but it really does open up doors for you,” Cox said.

Although Cox can remember specific details of the different types of rides or the exact spot she was standing from a memory years ago, there is one memory she looks forward to reliving every year. Every time she adds another crown to her collection, Cox and her mother share a funnel cake at the fair to commemorate the pageant win, a tradition they’ve followed since her first Boone County Fair win as Princess in 2016.

Cox loves the pageantry and the performing, but at the end of the day what she loves most is the platform it gives her.

“With that crown and sash, you may not think it, but it really does open up doors for you,” Cox said.

In the same vein, she finds that earning these titles also helps change the perception of what a pageant winner can be in Missouri. As a Mexican-American, Cox has not often seen someone that represents her.

“I remember one family I was talking to, and she told her kid ‘Look, she can speak Spanish,’ and knowing how I was when I was little, if I saw someone that looked like me and spoke the language that I spoke and had the same traditions that I did in a crown and a sash and that type of position… I don’t know, that type of image would make me feel like I wasn’t an odd one out,” Cox said.

Cox has loved that as she’s grown up, she’s learned that what is most important is being herself.

“It took me a while to realize I don’t have to say what they want to hear,” Cox said. “I can have my own voice and if they don’t like it, that’s their issue.”

Being herself has proven to be the right method, earning her seven crowns over the years. Cox sees this as a positive change in what can be seen as a rigid industry, and shows that it is evolving to embrace people for their unique natures, beliefs and capabilities.

Still, it’s not all glitz and glam behind the scenes. Cox has to wear Band-Aids to prevent blisters from the shoes she wears. She watches baking shows while getting ready and doing her makeup. She always gets nervous before a performance, and is willing to publicly shake out her nerves with the other royalty to calm them down.

“These girls, they look perfect, and they’re amazing, and they’re always happy,” Cox said. “But they’re not. They’re humans. They can’t possibly be like that. So I try to be as transparent as possible.”

As the reigning Boone County Fair Queen, Cox is now lined up to represent the county at the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia in mid-August.

To prepare, she’s been studying up on agriculture, politics and relevant current issues that could be brought up in her interviews, with eyes on placing top 10 in consideration for the 2025 Missouri State Fair Queen.

While excited, she is nervous about the difference in environment compared to the fair she grew up attending here in Boone County.

“My goal is just to be able to get up there and have fun,” Cox said.