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By
- Mary Colurso | mcolurso@al.com
Lauren Norris might be hailing cabs, eating pretzels from street carts and walking in the shadow of the Empire State Building. But as anyone who follows her on social media will tell you, she’s a Southern girl at heart.
Norris, 27, grew up in Wetumpka and became a popular influencer during her student days at the University of Alabama. Now she’s living in New York City, sharing her experiences in the Big Apple — and earning new followers as Miss New York 2025.
“I built my brand on the quote ‘be the girl that just went for it’ by paving my own path (no matter how different it looked from others),” Norris said in a Monday Instagram post. “Let’s do this next adventure together.”
She replaces Cassie Donegan as Miss New York 2025. and will hold the state crown for about a year. Donegan, who was crowned Miss New York in July 2025, won the Miss America 2026 pageant on Sept. 7, leaving the state title open.
Typically, the new Miss America gives up her state crown when she wins the national pageant, and the first runner-up in the state pageant steps up to take over the title.
If the first runner-up declines or cannot serve as the state titleholder, pageant organizers continue down the line of runners-up as necessary, asking the second runner-up, third runner-up and so on.
Norris made the top five for Miss New York during the state pageant in July, and initially was named third runner-up. She then became second runner-up when the top five lineup shifted. That’s because Mina Liang, who originally won Miss New York 2025, gave up her crown for unspecified reasons, a few days after the pageant.
Cassie Donegan, the first runner-up for Miss New York, took over the state title, and everyone in the top five moved up a spot. This nudged Norris into a better position to take over as Miss New York when Donegan won Miss America.
Norris explained her “insane” path to becoming Miss New York in a Tuesday Instagram video, calling the position “a huge, huge honor.”
“Since Cassie just won Miss America, they needed a girl to step in and it just goes down the line of the top five, if that makes sense,” Donegan said in the video. “I happily accepted. ... If you’re watching this and you feel like your dreams are taking longer than you hoped, hold on. Because things that are meant for you truly will not pass you. It is actually insane that everything happened in the way that it did for Cassie and for me.”
Norris has more than 1 million followers across social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. Her glossy photos and videos typically focus on fashion, her hair and makeup routines, events she attends, home decor, her two fluffy cats and her relationship with her fiance, Will Camp. Norris also endorses products such as Sally Hansen nail gel and Fancy Feast cat food.
As a student at the University of Alabama, Norris went viral with videos on sorority rush, recruitment outfits and her membership in Pi Beta Phi. She posted her first YouTube video, “COLLEGE MOVE IN VLOG! | University of Alabama” in August 2019, and her following grew from there.
Norris graduated from Alabama in 2023 with a bachelor’s degree in digital communication and media/multimedia, according to her LinkedIn profile. She describes herself on LinkedIn as a “Social Media Content Creator who likes to talk to a camera. Experience in working with apparel, fashion, beauty, and the home industry to create content they love.”
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