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Juneau’s first Miss Alaska USA winner raises awareness for suicide prevention, fundraises for next competition
‘I like to highlight that there is something after the attempt — that there is so much to live for’
By Jasz Garrett
Juneau Independent
Holly Huber is the capital city’s first Miss Alaska USA winner. On June 28, she was crowned in Anchorage with a dream she’s had for the last eight years.
“I think I cried for like half an hour straight, just full tears. I was so excited. I knew what it meant for me,” she said. “I’ve got so many things that I want to accomplish, and being able to do it here in my home where I was raised is just so rewarding and so fulfilling.”
Huber, 26, serves on the board of directors for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, a focal point of her Miss Alaska USA private interview. She joined the board three years ago.
“My mom is a suicide survivor. She attempted to take her life when I was 14 years old, and that is really what started my journey getting involved with mental health awareness and suicide prevention,” Huber said. “And today she is my biggest inspiration, my biggest advocate. She is right by my side every step that I’ve taken for this. So just reminding people that you’re never alone.”
Huber said she lost her older brother to suicide, but she focuses on telling her mother’s story because the goal is suicide prevention.
“I like to highlight that there is something after the attempt — that there is so much to live for,” she said.
She said she’s found a supportive community in pageants and the other girls support each other, win or lose. Along with the interview, Huber competed in swimwear and formal wear.
“We remind each other that we are worth so much more than what a little scorecard says. So despite what people think, pageants are so supportive. We uplift each other,” she said. “They focus so much on the woman’s education. They focus on her platform. They focus on helping her make a difference, helping her get into rooms that she couldn’t get in before. It’s not just parading her around with a crown on her head. It’s putting her in meaningful environments where she can make that change.”
Huber said she is using her platform to draw attention to Alaska’s thin mental health resources. As of 2024, Alaska has the highest suicide rate per capita of any state in the nation.
Twice a year, she lobbies at the state and federal levels. Huber said this year at the Alaska State Capitol she supported Senate Bill 41, SB 206 and House Bill 89. She also traveled to Washington, D.C.
“It’s really nice to be able to sit down with the people who make these laws, who make these things possible, and show them how the things that they’re doing are affecting people boots on the ground,” she said. “So to be able to represent these people and talk about the kind of things that they need and have it actually fall on a real person who really cares and really wants to make a difference is so wonderful.”
SB 41, which aimed to create a mental health curriculum for students, passed the Senate but was vetoed by the governor in June. Huber said it would make a huge difference for youth to learn about resources available to them. She said she struggled with her mental health in school, and found support through the Teen Health Center.
“A lot of students don’t know how to ask for help, especially younger people. Maybe they don’t recognize the kind of things they’re feeling,” Huber said. “They don’t know how to address it. And having that safe place in school or that curriculum in place would teach them how to safely talk about their feelings, how to safely address some of these urges that they might be feeling.”
Huber said she’s personally struggled with anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder most of her life, and has experienced firsthand how difficult it is to access resources in Juneau.
“Just even recently I went to change providers and there was an eight-month wait list just to see somebody. People need help now. They need care now,” she said. “So my biggest goal working with these organizations in town is to help see people quicker or create a program or resources that they can access immediately. I really love the 988 hotline, which is a mental health crisis hotline. It is free for anybody to call. There are specialized lines for our LGBTQ community, so it’s very important.”
Right now, Huber is preparing to leave for Miami, Florida, on Aug. 19 to compete in Miss USA. She is fundraising for the competition with a goal of $5,000 to cover travel, wardrobe, food, fees, competition prep and training.
“It is a lot of mental, emotional and physical fortifying. It’s 10 days of just activities and competition. You’re there with almost 50 other women and it is a competition,” Huber said. “They’re comparing everybody together, so it’s definitely a lot of preparing yourself for that mentally — reminding yourself that there’s so much more to your life — to myself — than a pageant.”
Outside of pageantry and advocacy work, Huber enjoys hiking, plants, baking, spending time with her two dogs and traveling.
She added her mom travels with her to every competition and the two are looking forward to visiting Miami together next month. Her mom started having Huber compete in pageants when she was a toddler.
“I kept with it because I really love the kind of community that comes with it, the resources and the opportunities that come with it,” Huber said. “Doing pageants has helped pay down almost all my student loans and I think a lot of people don’t realize how many scholarships come from it. For example, our Miss Alaska Teen USA gets a four-year scholarship.”
An alumna of Thunder Mountain High School, Huber studied fashion marketing, has a certificate in finance and is currently pursuing her bachelor’s in business administration at Western Governors University. She said she’d like to continue working with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, but in a future career instead of as a volunteer.
“These pageants really invest in women’s futures, their educations, rooms that they want to be in,” she said. “I would really love to work with a large-scale suicide prevention organization to help not only with the advocacy but with the push-out of all of these resources.”
Huber said she is most excited about building her curated wardrobe for the big stage and planning fundraising events with local businesses for the competition.
She said her August send-off party will include a silent auction, with details to be announced. A collaboration with the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium around mental health awareness is pending. Huber is also working closely with Capital City Fire/Rescue and the National Alliance on Mental Illness Juneau.
She shared winning the state title has allowed her to make these connections with local organizations and she looks forward to representing Alaska in the national competition.
“I want people to look at me and think that I’m kind, that I carry myself well. I really want to be a reflection of the people of Alaska, and kindness is absolutely the biggest thing that I’ve experienced here,” she said. “I really want to highlight the culture that’s here and pay respect to the land that we live on and how lucky I am to be here.”
• Contact Jasz Garrett at jasz@juneauindependent.com or (907) 723-9356.
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