Louisville, where we introduce you to the people, places and things that make up Kentucky's largest city.

This week, meet Miss Kentucky Arianna Rodriguez.

At just 20 years old, Arianna made history at this year's Miss America pageant as the first former foster youth to earn a spot in the top 11 of the national competition.

Her platform and her passion is lifting up youth in the foster care system and educating the public about their unique challenges.

She grew up homeless and in various foster homes across Kentucky, an experience that led her to create the Lucky Ones Foundation, which turns her passion into action.

Here's her story.

>> Your new Miss Kentucky is Arianna Rodriguez Martin.

>> The Miss America organization is very service driven, and it really encourages young people to use their voices to advocate for the issues they care most about.

I hope to use my platform to amplify the voices of youth who have experienced the foster care system, and educate the public about the issues that they face.

My focus had always been on starting the Lucky Ones Foundation before I even created a name for it.

I knew that that was my life's goal to help youth who have experienced things similar to my experiences.

Do you know, a lot of people think that Miss Kentucky is this perfect girl who doesn't have any problems and has her life together, and that's just not true for me or for any Miss Kentucky.

We're just people at the end of the day.

We are at the earliest home that I remember when I was in kinship care with my grandma and grandpa.

Kinship care is like foster care, but it's when you're placed with someone who is in some kind of relation to you.

So it can be a family friend or a relative.

Oh my gosh, this is so cool.

It looks so much better now.

I love singing, I started when I was like four years old.

I used to make my brother and sister watch me and get up on top of the kitchen table when we lived with my grandma and I'd give performances.

I wanted to be a pop star.

That was the dream.

I didn't stay in kinship care for very long.

I ended up going into foster care because my providers just simply couldn't afford to take care of us.

This is crazy.

My mother was born in Russell Springs, Kentucky.

She had a very difficult life.

She she was homeless at 16 years old, much like me.

So this is a very systemic issue.

My mom eventually turned to drugs.

The goal of Child Protective Services is to always get you back with your biological parent, no matter what that looks like.

So when we were placed back with her, when she did get clean, she was homeless herself.

And that's when we moved into the abandoned house in Muldraugh.

>> This is the house that I lived after I was reunified with my mom.

After being in.

>> Foster care, I remember walking down there and waiting for the bus stop because I was so embarrassed for people on the bus to see that I lived here.

This is like where we would put the buckets, typically when we needed water because we didn't have running water, we would heat the water up to like purify it and then drink it, or we used to just dump it on each other.

That was our bath.

You know, slept in the living room, all three of us.

We could only afford one mattress.

So we were all piled up on this like little queen full size mattress.

And we cooked in the kitchen.

I mean, just like your average family, I guess.

Except we didn't have heat or water or air conditioning or electricity.

So my mom was working like 12 hour shifts, and she still couldn't afford to find us a place with three kids if we moved in with one of her friends that lived in Nelson County.

And so we stayed there for two years after this.

The problem wasn't ever that my mom or my grandma didn't care about us, it was that they couldn't financially support us.

A couple of my teachers knew that I didn't have the best home circumstances, but they didn't know the full extent of it.

I wanted to keep that away from the people at school, because I didn't want my brother and sister going back into foster care.

They said that they wanted to live with my mom, and although it was not the best place for me, like they were safe there, they were fine.

I just I couldn't stay there.

While I was living out of my car.

My junior year of high school, and I would park right over here under this light at the Nelson County Fairgrounds.

And it always had the most beautiful sunsets.

And I remember just looking up and thinking, one day I'm going to come back and the sunset won't be like the best thing in my life.

While I was living out of my car and with friends, I realized that I had a passion for learning and that I wanted to go to college, but I had no idea how I was going to afford it.

I left foster care 26 days too early to receive any financial aid from being in foster care, and so I looked up talent competitions, and that's when I found the Miss America organization.

I didn't know it was a pageant.

I thought it was a talent competition.

So I went in there having no idea what I was doing.

I didn't have clothes that fit me.

I didn't have a track for my talent.

I just got up there, I sang, I wore clothes that were two sizes too big.

I put all of my college savings into competing and I lost.

I was crying in a hallway.

I put everything into this pageant and I walked away with nothing.

A director came up to me and she said, if you want to go to Miss Kentucky, we'll get you there.

She put a post on Facebook asking people for donations to help support my journey into the Miss Kentucky scholarship organization.

She got so many donations that it completely funded the past three years of me competing, and I've made over $30,000 of scholarships.

>> Arianna Rodriguez, Miss Kentucky, is joining us here in our Louisville studio.

Thank you so much for being here.

And we heard a little bit about your story there.

What an incredible story of perseverance, really.

So tell us what it was like growing up in foster care and kinship care and for a time, homeless living out of your car.

As a teenager.

>> It was very difficult for me.

I entered foster care when I was 12 years old, after being in kinship care for eight years, and so when I actually got through the foster care system, I was eventually reunified with my biological mother, and that's when we were placed in the abandoned house, which we lived in for about a year before becoming homeless at 16.

So the last two years that I spent in high school, I spent living out of my car.

It was really difficult because you think about being 16, you think about, you know, having crushes and what you're going to do in math class and extracurricular activities and what college you're going to, and you don't really see the side of survival that a lot of kids who grow up in foster care eventually face in their teenage years.

I was so focused on just surviving that I didn't get to think about planning my future.

I, I didn't know what to wear to an interview, what to put on a resume, how to do taxes.

So those were all things that I had to learn during high school, while simultaneously trying to figure out where I was going to sleep that night and when I was going to eat next.

So it was a really difficult time in my life, but I think it taught me a lot growing up in so many different areas of the state of Kentucky has really prepared me to step into the role of Miss Kentucky, because I travel all throughout the state, and I feel as though, since I was able to grow up in so many different environments, I can connect with people all across the state and across the country.

>> That's just incredible.

So how did you get involved eventually in pageants?

>> So my senior year of high school, I knew that I wanted to go to college, and I found out that I aged out of foster care 26 days too early to receive any financial aid.

And so I wasn't going to get to go to college for free, which most, most youth who age out at 18 get.

But since I didn't technically age out, I just left foster care at 16.

I wasn't eligible for any of that.

So I looked online for talent competitions because I had earned some money doing that in elementary and middle school.

And I found the miss my old Kentucky home organization.

I didn't know it was a pageant.

I thought it was a talent competition, so I went wearing clothes that didn't fit me.

I, I didn't know what I was doing.

I walked in and I remember seeing one of my she's one of my best friends now.

Her name is Sophia Todd.

She went on to win Miss Kentucky's teen that year.

But I walked in and she has all these, like, glamorous outfits and she's just.

If you think about what a model looks like, it's like this girl, okay, she's beautiful.

She has it all together.

And I'm sitting here in a dress that's two sizes too big, thinking, what am I doing?

So I walk in and I put everything into this pageant.

All of my college savings I put into competing because I saw that there was a $20,000 scholarship for the winner of Miss Kentucky.

And I put everything into this and I lost.

I went up there and I sang a talent that I didn't have a track for.

I just got up there and sing.

I went over time, I, I got up there in my prom dress and I just walked out on stage.

I, I didn't really know what I was doing, and I took a chance on myself, which looking back, was one of the best things that I've ever done.

But in the moment it was terrifying.

I was so scared.

And so Sophia won that night and I had a director come up to me and she said, if you want to go to Miss Kentucky, we'll get you there.

So I ended up competing again and going to Miss Kentucky's teen that year, and then eventually won Miss Kentucky.

>> Yeah, I think it's so important to those stories of it's not it's not always just A to B, you know.

And there's always kind of those detours along the way for very many people.

And I think it's really important that people hear that it's it's not easy.

And you don't always win, especially your first time.

And I know when we talked to Heather French Henry, who's from here in Miss America 2000, she said the same thing.

She talked about all the ones nobody hears about the pageants or the competitions that you lose.

And so it sounds like you, because of your experience, you kind of had that determination and that perseverance factor to help you get through that.

>> Definitely.

And when you have people looking up to you, like my brother and sister looked up to me, that keeps you motivated even on the hardest days.

There are so many days as Miss Kentucky where I'm honestly exhausted.

We were talking a little bit earlier about, you know, how long the days are and how many people you interact with.

And I love my job, and even on the days that it gets hard, I'm reminded of why I do this.

You know, meeting people and getting to hear their stories.

And I hope that I'm able to give them a little bit of inspiration to keep them going through the hardest parts of their life, because we're all part of a community.

And as community members, it's our job to make sure that the people around us are doing well and that we're supporting them.

So I try to do that as Miss Kentucky, but on hard days, I always just call my little brother and little sister and they hype me up.

>> Yeah, that was another thing before we got started, she said.

I love talking about my little brother and little sister and that is incredible.

But I know one other person you have been an inspiration for is your mom.

Tell us about her and your situation with her and how this has really helped her as well.

>> My mom grew up in a lot of difficult situations herself.

She actually became homeless at 16, similar to me, and she experienced a lot of traumatic moments in her childhood.

And so when she had me, she eventually turned to drugs because she lost a lot of her family members in a short period of time.

Anyone who she was close with unfortunately passed away in just a span of a couple years.

And so she turned to drugs and she was dealing with addiction when I was living with her.

And I think that me winning Miss Kentucky gave her inspiration as well, because it showed her that even individuals like me and her who have these really uncomfortable stories, stories that most people look at and say, oh, well, they can't do this because of their past.

I think that me winning Miss Kentucky showed her that your past doesn't define your future.

You know that you're the only person that defines what your destiny looks like.

So I'm really happy to say that my mom has been sober for years now, and I'm just so proud of her.

>> I want to talk about the Lucky Ones Foundation, which is the foundation that you created to help children who were in that same situation.

Tell me about how you came up with the idea and and what it is you all do.

Yeah.

>> When I was in foster care, when I was placed at the doorsteps of my first home, you're given a trash bag and you're placed at the doorstep of a stranger.

And I had just been separated from my sister.

It was a very difficult and traumatic time in my life.

And I remember just getting in the car of the CPS worker and just crying.

I mean, I was very upset.

I was very young and having to deal with all of these things that were changing in my life.

And I remember the CPS worker looked at me and she said, you should be grateful.

You're one of the lucky ones.

And she told me about stories of children just like me, who were raped, who were trafficked, and who were abused far worse than I was.

And I just remember sitting there and thinking, how am I one of the lucky ones, you know, feeling guilty.

I guess that I had it easier than other kids, but also just feeling this pain of everything that I had experienced.

And so I knew that something had to change.

And that's when I started the Lucky Ones Foundation.

The nonprofit is designed to amplify the voices of youth in foster care and educate the public about the issues that they face in foster care, youth's voices are often diminished.

You're not really allowed to tell your story.

In fact, you're you're told to be quiet a lot of times.

And so one of the goals of my nonprofit is to give youth a way to explain their story in their own words.

So many times in foster care, other people are speaking for you, but you never get the chance to speak to a judge yourself or tell your side of the story.

And so The Lucky Ones podcast is a platform that I designed where youth can come in and share their own stories and talk about what they think the foster care system should do to support youth more.

And The Lucky Ones podcast is also a platform that allows me to educate the general public about foster care.

We realized very early on that most people don't know what it's like to be a child in the foster care system, and so we're able to educate them about the issues that they face and what it's truly like to be a child in the system.

>> Yeah, there's a lot of misconceptions, I think, about foster care, children and foster care families.

You know, what it takes to become a foster parent.

And I know there's many more of those needed.

What do you think are some of the biggest misconceptions you hear about and what's what's the real story.

>> When you're in foster care, you're almost automatically labeled as a criminal.

You have to go into a room by yourself.

It has nothing on the walls.

It's just a plain room.

And you have to strip down as much clothes as you can without being absolutely naked.

And someone comes in and they check you for self-harm.

And that in itself is really difficult.

Again, we we just talked about all of the traumatic things that youth experience.

But on top of that, you know, some stranger coming in and, you know, looking at all of your body, that's a really uncomfortable for a child.

>> You've described it as dehumanizing.

>> Yes.

It is very dehumanizing.

>> And they don't tell you what is going on.

That was the thing that always bothered me the most.

I understand that they have to check those things.

They have to make sure that the child is safe and understand their health.

But I also think that it could have been an easy switch to just say like, hey, this is what we're doing.

>> And why.

Yeah.

And why.

>> And a lot of kids don't understand that.

And when you are just dehumanized over and over again, it creates this block with your self-esteem.

You're not really able to lean into your identity because you're constantly having to be what everyone tells you that you are.

When you're in foster care, you're told these statistics about kids in foster care over and over again, 50% will become homeless or in prison within the first two years of exiting care.

3% will go to get their bachelor's degree.

You're preached these statistics almost.

And so youth in foster care leave foster care with this idea that they will never become anything.

And that isn't something that happens in one day that's gradual over years.

I mean, yes, it was uncomfortable for me to go into a car with a random person that I'd never met and been transported to a CPS office, but it was also uncomfortable for me to sit in that office and have someone inspect my body, and for someone to give me a trash bag to put my most prized possessions in.

And everything that happened after that just reinforced the fact that the system did not value my worth.

And so The Lucky Ones Foundation really hopes to change that for youth in foster care.

>> Yeah.

And one of the things you mentioned, the trash bag, one of the things the lucky ones does is the suitcase initiative.

>> Yes.

>> And tell us about that.

>> So we actually just partnered with the Department of Community Based Services, Teen Kentucky, and the Department of Agriculture for the whole state of Kentucky.

We had children in schools all across the state, collect suitcases and other supplies to give to youth in foster care.

We collected over 2000 items, so that was a really successful initiative.

We did that in just one week, so I'm excited to see what we can do throughout the rest of the year as Miss Kentucky.

>> Yeah, and I know a lot of it is just connecting with these kids.

But part of your platform is really changing how the system works.

And so what are some things that you're hoping legislators are going to be listening to and things within the system that could really be changed?

>> I actually.

>> Just had the opportunity to speak to all of the judges that work within the foster care system in the state of Kentucky, and I was able to tell them what needs to change from a foster care perspective.

And the number one thing that I wish would have been different when I was in foster care is that the judges and the case managers listened to kids.

That's all it takes.

I understand that you can't do everything that a child asks for, but that asking them, you know, what do you want?

What do you need?

How do you feel?

What are your hopes and your dreams for the future?

Having one person to ask those questions can change the trajectory of a child's life.

And so it's really as easy as that.

I would say that's the number one thing that anyone involved in the child welfare system can do to support a child.

>> Yeah, just giving them that voice and feeling like they do have a say, even if sometimes they don't in the grand scheme of things.

But just feeling like that.

I want to talk a little bit more about the the initiatives of the Lucky Ones Foundation.

And do you consider yourself now one of the lucky ones?

>> Definitely.

Most youth who have experienced within the foster care system do not have the opportunities that I have had.

I've had the opportunity to promote my platform on a national level at the Miss America stage and beyond.

Next month, I'm actually having the opportunity to tour the white House and tell congressmen about what needs to change within the foster care system, and so I am able to use my voice to share my story.

But many people don't have that privilege.

Many people in foster care will become one of those statistics if we don't step in.

>> So you've got a lot on your plate.

You've got a lot going on.

So you were a student at University of Kentucky and taking this year off to be Miss Kentucky, which is a full time job traveling across the state and promoting your platform.

What's been the biggest, I guess, change or difference in what you thought it was going to be like versus what it what it really is like?

>> Well.

>> Let me start by saying I wasn't expecting to win.

I am I'm only 20 years old.

I had just turned 20 when I competed for Miss Kentucky this year.

Some of the girls whom I competed with are 28, and so I was really just going, trying to get a little bit of scholarships to develop myself personally and professionally.

And so when they called my name, I was so excited.

But I was also like, I really have to do this.

Yeah.

So it was a difficult change stepping into the role because your whole life changes.

I, I was living in a dorm and obviously if I have to take a year off, I can't live in the dorm.

So the apartment was a struggle.

And then I didn't grow up on a farm.

So stepping into the role as the spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture was interesting, because I walked in on my first day and I was like, you guys are going to have to teach me a lot because I don't know anything about agriculture.

I didn't then, I've learned a lot since, thankfully.

But having the best team in the world, the Department of Agriculture team is, I think, one of the best in the entire nation.

I'm a little biased because they feel like a true family to me, but they're just so incredible.

And from day one, I mean, they taught me and I've been able to learn that agriculture doesn't look the same for everyone.

I don't have to grow up on a farm to understand the importance of agriculture in our state.

Even in urban areas like Louisville.

I mean, it's very, very prominent to the success of our state as a whole.

And so I've been able to learn that and learn directly from farmers as well.

I talk a lot about how to understand the foster care system.

We need to look at the perspectives of youth who have experienced within the foster care system.

And agriculture is the same.

I didn't grow up on a farm, so I really look to those who have lived on a farm, who are farmers themselves, to teach me about agriculture, because I feel as though that's the best way that I can learn.

>> Yeah.

What's next for you after this?

So your reign as as Miss Kentucky ends next summer.

I'm assuming you'll go back to school.

Or tell me what?

What the future holds for you.

>> So I will go back to the University of Kentucky to continue my degrees in social work and psychology.

And after that, I am looking at getting my master's at Yale University, so I will be touring there next month.

I'm really excited.

Hopefully everything works out, but that is the ultimate dream.

After I graduate with my master's, I hope to open an independent living facility for youth who have experience within the foster care system to come after they age out and learn those essential life skills that you don't learn when you're in foster care.

>> Wow, that's ambitious goals, I have no doubt.

What else do you want people to know about?

You know, I think there's also a lot of misconceptions about also in foster care and the pageant world.

What are some things that you want people to know about Miss Kentucky or Miss America that that maybe they don't?

>> Everyone does have a preconceived notion of what it's like to be a girl in pageantry.

They think that it's this supermodel, and while beauty is a factor in it, I don't think that that's the most important thing.

The most important thing is that these girls have a heart of gold going to miss America and seeing all of the girls and learning about their community service initiatives and their past stories taught me that it doesn't look the same.

Any titleholder looks different and their story is different.

And the thing that is similar about all of us is that we use our story to help other people, and I think that's what people need to take away, that the Miss America organization isn't a beauty pageant, it's a scholarship organization to give girls a chance to succeed even when the statistics are against them.

>> You can watch and share this episode anytime at streaming online at ket.org.

Plus, give us a follow on social media where we get some real talk with Miss Kentucky.

What behind the scenes at the Miss America pageant is really like?

You can see that all on our Instagram.

We're at KET in lieu.

Thanks for spending a little time getting to know Louisville today.

I hope we'll see you here next time.

Until then, make it a great week!