Shequan Palmer, a devout believer in Jesus, wife, mom, role model, dynamite businesswoman, and Beauty Queen, exemplifies everything about the type of women we love to highlight here at STL! Her story is not only inspirational to many but proves that God can take all the broken pieces of our past and create something better than words can even describe – if we allow him to!
Tragedy Strikes Early
Shequan had a normal childhood until it took a traumatic turn when her mother was brutally murdered due to domestic violence. From an early age, Shequan was raised by her Grandmother, who taught her to love Jesus, but it was lessons about self-love, boundaries in relationships, and fear that would take her many years to unravel through God’s gentle leading and direction.
At the age of 16, Shequan found herself pregnant, and those familiar feelings of unbelief and fear tried their best to keep her from fulfilling her God-given destiny. Through the support and love from her grandparents and extended family, she was able to finish the rest of her high school years with a new purpose in life – mommyhood!
Finding Purpose In The Midst of Pain
As time went on she developed a personal relationship with Jesus, and he would ultimately, little by little, heal the deep wounds that could only be healed by a touch from Him. God’s love never failed her, and in (insert year) she would go on to meet and marry the love of her life, Wayne Palmer, a God-sent man that would prove to love her and their son through it all.
In 2020, Shequan decided to check off an item on her bucket list and compete in Arizona’s International Beauty Pageant. She had no expectations from the Pageant, other than meeting other like-minded ladies and gaining a bit more confidence in her cat “walk”! Her expectations were met and succeeded!
In her words, she says:
“I am pursuing a mission I believe will encourage other women to walk in confidence in their own lives, through the lens of Christ. Life is about discovering why you are here and how you can have a positive impact in the time given. Competing in this pageant will help me to further ways to share the gifts and passion that God has instilled within me.”
– Shequan Palmer
Her pageant platform, ACE’s, standing for Adverse Childhood Experiences, came out of her own journey of overcoming childhood trauma. Its mission is to help others recognize and link traumatic childhood/adolescent experiences to current health and wellness, for the purpose of healing, resolving, and thriving in their futures.
The Test That Became Her Testimony
Later that year Shequan graced the stage of the Mrs. Arizona International Beauty Pageant for the very first time, and as God would have it, she WON the title of Mrs. Arizona International!
Now with a Nationally recognized title and platform, God uses her testimony of overcoming childhood adversity to reach others with the same or similar story. To date, she has traveled the U.S. proclaiming the love of Jesus through the pain that started in her youth. After going on to compete Nationally, she launched Sash Class, a high-class pageant training program that combines her own experiences of the pageant industry and life as a Beauty Queen to raise up the next generation of young women gracing stages across America. She has been recognized in various spaces regionally as a voice to be heard and can be found directing the Miss Juneteenth Pageant in Chandler, Arizona annually. Her gifts continue to make room for her as she acknowledges Jesus as her Lord and Savior across every platform she’s given!
Click for more information on Sash Class and the Miss Juneteenth Pageant!
Shequans life and testimony are an amazing example of God using the unlikeliest contenders to do some pretty incredible things. It reminds us that God is faithful, and more than capable of not just fixing the broken-hearted, but restoring us to wholeness. If that isn’t enough, he then uses our willingness to share our testimonies, the good, the bad, and the ugly, as the fuel for healing in others.
