Mr. EHS is (typically) a male beauty pageant where the contestants show off their talents, sing karaoke, and perform dance numbers ‒ but Molly Lyons, a senior at Eaglecrest has applied to be in Mr. EHS. She is the first female to apply to be in Mr. EHS.

Lyons states that just like any other contestant she wants to “showcase things [she is] capable of,” She said that she saw no valid reason to not apply but has received lots of feedback, both negative and positive. Students have said that she wasn’t going to win, or that she shouldn’t have been allowed to enter because she is female. But Lyons retorts with “Why not? Just because I identify as female doesn’t make me any less qualified for this competition than my male counterparts.”

However, more some students have expressed their support for Lyons, boosting her confidence going into Mr. EHS. Some of Lyons’ main supports have been her family, her friends, and her girlfriend, who have encouraged her to step outside of the norms. Lyons plans on giving this competition her all and “not holding anything back,” She revealed that for the talent portion of the show, she plans on playing a song she wrote about a year ago.

Lyons also mentioned the possibility of a Ms. EHS (or a competition that any student will be able to join) becoming another event at Eaglecrest. She has spoken to Ms. Laferrara, one of the activities directors, and Mr. Davis, student leadership advisor, about this opportunity for change.

Last year during Mr. EHS, tensions arose between contestants as the goal of Mr. EHS was lost. Some competitors got very upset that they didn’t win the competition when they felt they deserved the title of Mr. EHS over others. Although a little healthy competition is good in a talent show‒after all, what fun would it be to see people who didn’t care about winning participate in a competition?‒ too much competition can suck the fun out of any event and discourage people from participating in future competitions.

“There are two types of people that participate in Mr. EHS:” Lyons says, “people who are there to showcase things people may not have known about them, who don’t really care about if they win or not, and people whose only goal is to win.” She says that people who are only there to win can divide our school. Arguments on who should have won also undermine the winners’ hard work to win Mr. EHS. Lyons wants to use this opportunity “as a chance to unite our school more” and open the door to conversations of gender that weren’t open before.