The New Miss USA Only Has a Week to Prepare for Miss Universe

Audrey Eckert was just named the new Miss USA, but there will be little time to celebrate.

Eckert will board a plane to Thailand on Thursday — just six days after being crowned in Reno, Nevada — to compete in the Miss Universe 2025 pageant.

It’s the biggest competition of Eckert’s life, but the 23-year-old pageant queen told Business Insider that she feels ready. In fact, she’s been training for years.

A lifetime in pageants

Eckert began competing in pageants when she was 9 years old. The Nebraska native got her start after receiving a letter inviting her to compete in a local pageant.

“My mom and I, we wanted to do it,” Eckert recalled. “We were excited, but we had no idea what we were doing. My first evening gown didn’t even touch the floor.”

“I just went in having fun, but my mom and I both saw how much I grew from just one pageant,” she added. “Pageantry has changed the trajectory of my life, and it all stemmed from that very first pageant when I was 9.”

Eckert competed at the Miss Teen USA competition in 2020 as Miss Nebraska Teen and made it to the top five, but Miss USA and Miss Universe have always been her end goal.

“That kind of peeled back a layer and showed me I could really do this; I could be Miss USA someday,” she said.

Preparing for Miss USA

Eckert decided to compete in this year’s Miss Nebraska competition just five weeks before the pageant, which she won in April. As she trained for Miss USA, Eckert always knew there was the potential that she could go to Miss Universe.

“We were all told that whoever wins is going to have to be Miss Universe-ready,” Eckert said. “So as far as getting my walks ready and my interview style ready for Miss USA, I always knew in the back of my head that I could be going to Miss Universe shortly, so I was already working to achieve that level of stage presence.”

That included spending hours in a studio to practice her walk. Eckert said she drew on her dance and cheer background to master the technique, as well as her facials and “hairography.” Eckert also devoted time to exercising and reviewing hot topics and current events for the interview rounds.

“Because of my cheer background and being a college athlete, I feel more prepared for the stage elements because I can practice those in advance and know exactly what moves I want to hit, what turns, what spins,” Eckert said. “But in the interview room, there’s a little more uncertainty. You don’t exactly know what they’re going to ask you.”

“Preparing for it was obviously a lot of hard work, but that’s what it’s all about for me,” she added. “I think the preparation part is so much fun, and a lot of my confidence comes from being prepared. So, thankfully, I feel like that is ready to go.”

Ready for Thailand

Two days after she was crowned in Reno, Eckert and the Miss USA team flew to Los Angeles to continue the Miss Universe preparations.

“We’re getting my wardrobe ready, we’re getting my styling ready, but we’re also taking time for me to relax and try to rejuvenate so that I can be my best self in Thailand,” Eckert said.

Eckert said she’s excited to follow in the footsteps of Sarah Rose Summers, a fellow Miss Nebraska who won Miss USA in 2018 and competed for Miss Universe in Thailand that same year.

Eckert is also the social media and marketing coordinator for a company that makes its products in Thailand, so she said she can’t wait to experience the country firsthand.

“I actually work for Sapahn, which is a human-rights fashion brand where all of our leather bags are made in Thailand,” Eckert said. “So I’ve been communicating and working with women in Thailand for the last year and a half, but I’ve never actually been to Thailand. So I’m excited to really immerse myself in the culture.”

November will be a long month full of events and preliminary competitions before the Miss Universe finals on November 21, but Eckert isn’t fazed by what’s ahead.

“The moment Nebraska was called as Miss USA 2025, that’s when I said to myself, ‘Here we go. My life has changed,'” Eckert said. “I knew I was going to be ready to hit the ground running.”