Sophia Dominguez-Heithoff

Dominguez-Heithoff was born in Kansas City, Missouri to a military family, with her mother serving in the United States Air Force.[1] On her maternal side she is of German descent, while on her paternal side she is Mexican.[2] She graduated from Park Hill South High School a year early in 2017, and attended the University of Kansas, where she is studied political science and international studies and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She is now a law student at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law.[3] She is a member of Pi Beta Phi (ΠΒΦ) sorority.[4] She has created Community and Scholars Cooperatively, an organization dedicated to inspiring teenagers to take part in community service projects.[5][6] Dominguez-Heithoff has lobbied with members of the Missouri Senate and Missouri House of Representatives to pass a law to assist adults with developmental disabilities in the state of Missouri.[7]

Dominguez-Heithoff was crowned Miss Missouri Teen USA 2017 on September 25, 2016, along with Miss Missouri USA 2017 Bayleigh Dayton.[8][9] She later competed at Miss Teen USA 2017 in Phoenix, Arizona on July 29, 2017. Dominguez-Heithoff went on to win the competition, beating out first runner-up Vanessa Matheson of Oregon.[10] She is the fourth Hispanic to win the title of Miss Teen USA after Charlotte Lopez in 1993, Hilary Cruz in 2007, and Kamie Crawford in 2010.