By Mike Finney

FELTON — Recently crowned Miss Delaware Outstanding Teen Brynn String has always felt most at home kicking a ball on a soccer field or running around with a field hockey stick in hand.

So when the 14-year-old Lake Forest High School freshman approached her mother, Aimee String, about entering the competition, it came as a surprise.

Perhaps it shouldn’t have though, since her mother was Miss Delaware in 1996.

“I was a lot more comfortable coming into it because I kind of grew up around it,” Brynn said. “I knew that there would be people ready to help me with conducting mock interviews or if I needed any dresses or anything. I knew that we had those outreaches.”

The biggest support was from her family — her mom, plus her father, Daniel, and her siblings, Colton (12) and Cambri (8).

And now, they will all be in Brynn’s cheering section at the Miss America Outstanding Teen Pageant in August in Dallas. She captured the state title April 24 at the Milton Theatre.

“I think the most difficult thing for me was that I decided to do it kind of later on, so I only had like a couple months to really prepare myself,” Brynn said of her first such competition. “I just kind of decided to do it on a whim, and I only had a couple months to prepare myself, so I kind of had to do it in a rush.”

She relied on her experience in dance to propel her to the top. She is a preprofessional student at the Tatiana Akinfieva Dance Academy in Milford, where she trains in ballet, tap, jazz and contemporary genres.

She is also a senior company member of Diamond Dance Co.

While Brynn might be comfortable on athletic fields, dance gives her the most satisfaction.
“I love all the people, and I just get to come back and see them, and I love just dancing to express myself. Whenever I’m having a bad day, dance really is helpful, and it just lets me get all my emotions out in a healthy way.”

Brynn’s mom was taken aback when she found out her daughter was interested in entering a pageant. She said she never saw it coming.

“It’s funny because Brynn and I, personality-wise, are just very different,” she said. “We do things very differently, and our interests are different. So when she told me that she wanted to compete, I nearly fell off my chair. I was very surprised. She’s always been so interested in sports and stuff, and I was just surprised that she chose to do this.”

She received another shock when the winner’s tiara was placed on Brynn’s head last month.
“I’m so proud of the way that she has done it because she’s done it her way,” said Ms. String. “She’s stuck true to who she is and her personality, and it just makes me so proud of her that she’s been able to do it like that at such a young age.

“It is the most surreal feeling in the world to kind of have lived that moment and then watch your kids live that moment — it’s just so surreal.”

Brynn’s new role also brought some levity to her soccer teammates after she was hit hard during a recent match.

“She was fouled hard in the Indian River game last week, and it led to some laughs when one of our players said, ‘You can’t treat Miss Delaware like that,’” said Andy West, coach of Lake’s girls soccer team.

“During our soccer games, you would not have known that she was concerned about winning a pageant this year. She plays aggressively and accepts the give-and-take of the sport. She’s just a great athlete and a good fit for our team at Lake — always competing and always smiling.”

Brynn also enjoys volunteering and is working with a United Soccer team at Lake Forest Central Elementary.

In addition, she founded Masks From the Heart at the outset of the pandemic, which earned her a 2021 Governor’s Youth Volunteer Service Award.

“When the pandemic started, there wasn’t a lot of face masks available because there was a shortage,” Brynn said. “So I watched a YouTube video on how to make masks because my grandmother had just gotten me a sewing machine for my birthday.

“Before I knew it, I had people asking, ‘Can you make some for us? We need some right now.’ Then, I realized there was a need, and I was like, ‘Well, I’m not doing anything else,’ because everything was shut down. So I thought I might as well, and it turned into something so much bigger than I ever imagined it would be.”

Along with a friend, Mylee Wilkie — also a freshman at Lake Forest — over four or five months, Brynn created and donated more than 2,000 masks, more than the population of her hometown of Felton.

As for her future, Brynn is planning to pursue a degree in physical therapy to work as a pediatric physical therapist, specializing in children with disabilities.

There’s a personal moment that made that goal so important.

“My little cousin, Patrick, has cerebral palsy, and one year at Christmas, we had our Christmas family reunion, and all the kids were playing, and I went over, and I was playing with Patrick,” said Brynn.

“I just had so much fun playing with him and seeing his personality shine through, and that’s really what inspired me. I was like, ‘How can I make a job out of this?’”

Brynn, who just started to run track and serves as class treasurer, said she gets seven hours of sleep a night at the most and enjoys camping with her family when she is afforded a little downtime.

“A lot of my little downtime is spending it with family or friends because I never like to be alone really,” she said.

That won’t be an issue when she travels to Texas for the Miss America Outstanding Teen Pageant — her entire family will be there to support her.

“I’m so excited to meet all the other teen titleholders,” Brynn said. “I’m really excited. I get to go to Dallas — and I can’t wait.”