Long Island: Meet Your 2024 Queen
The recently-crowned Miss Long Island shares her healthy outlook on pageantry, beauty, and becoming well-rounded.
Photo credit: Aaron King, @kingaaronphotography
For Katherine Wang of East Setauket, exploring pageantry was an extra-curricular activity of sorts. She started thinking about it upon entering medical school at Stony Brook University School of Medicine, knowing she was about to eat, sleep, and breathe science-heavy schoolwork. “I thought, ‘How can I not make my entire life about medicine?’” The 25-year-old adds, “I’d never been in the beauty space, and thought, ‘What a fun way to kind of go about it!’” From her outsider’s perspective, pageantry offered glamour, camaraderie, and inspiration. “It’s healthy competition but with women who embody the things that I’ve always aspired to be: graceful, poised, well-spoken.”
Wang went into the 2024 pageant without a coach, but she did take tips from a good friend who was already involved. Choosing her platform was easy. While going for a master’s degree in bioethics at Harvard University Medical School, Wang discovered an area of medicine she felt passionate about, health literacy. “Med students have a unique opportunity in that we have more time than the attending physicians and higher-ups do to sit down with patients,” she says. “If they don’t understand some component, we can hash it out with them.” An idea was born. “I want to advocate for healthcare literacy, which is helping people understand their health better.”
Teach Them Young
Wang’s goal is to start with kids. “Working with children is something Long Island Pageants is a big proponent of,” she says. “Healthcare literacy is like learning a different language. We should start teaching it early, so children will grow into adults who better understand what’s going on in their bodies,” she says. Kids may not have access to doctor office portals yet, but they do see nutrition facts and other labels. “It’s taking their current understanding or the information they’re exposed to and ensuring it gets translated appropriately.”
Exploring Beauty
Wang is well-versed in internal health and sees a connection to outer beauty. “Beauty is a reflection of the internal self, and I love being around people who have a really good understanding of how to present themselves and their internal space,” she says. Wang has always had an interest in makeup (she did her own for the pageant!), but she’s new to the LI Beauty Scene in terms of treatments. And she’s ready to play — and learn. “We have some fabulous sponsors: I know Victoria Elizabeth (East Northport) is a place that I’ll go to soon for a facial,” she says. When getting her makeup done for the headshot (above), official pageant makeup artist Liz Kaiser gave Wang a few recommendations (see below) and tips she continues to use daily. For hair, Wang goes to B Salon in Stony Brook. “Bowen does my hair; he’s fabulous!”
So, what’s in her at-home arsenal? Scroll through Wang’s top makeup, skin, and hair picks, below.
Links: Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Flawless Finish Brighten and Perfect Duo, $91. Wet n Wild Mega Length Waterproof Mascara, $4. Mixsoon Bean Essence, $35. Beauty of Joseon Relief Sun Sunscreen SPF 50, $16. Kenra Dry Texture Spray, $25. Chi Enviro 54 Hairspray, $23.
To follow Wang’s journey as Miss Long Island and for more information on her health literacy platform, follow her on Instagram @katherineeleanorwang and also on @longislandpageants.
