FLEMING ISLAND – Erica Carnegie is an inspiration who is on her way to winning Miss Florida Teen USA. She recently won the title of Miss Clay County Teen USA and is honored to have received this title and represent the Clay area. Although pageantry is one of Carnegie’s many interests her biggest focus is the Aneurysm and AVM Foundation where she started the Youth Ambassador program.

Carnegie’s devotion to the Aneurysm and AVM Foundation started out when she found out she had a AVM-arteriovenous malformation beneath her left eye.

Winning Miss Florida USA would provide a greater platform to bring awareness to the foundation. But first, she still needs to collect donations to make the trip possible.

“An AVM is an arteriovenous malformation which is basically a ball or tangle of blood cells, vessels and veins that appear anywhere on the body but usually appear on the head, mine appeared under my left eye. There were just a lot of struggles I had to go through prior to having surgery, such as migraines, temporary blindness, fatigue, and just being stuck in bed,” she said.

Shortly after being diagnosed with AVM, Carnegie searched for youth groups that related to her condition. When she realized there weren’t any, she decided to start her own.

“Once I was finally diagnosed and realized where these symptoms were coming from, it was like a weight being lifted off my shoulders. I started looking for groups and things like that and I finally found the Aneurysm and AVM Foundation where I actually started the Youth Ambassador Program and found other youth and teens in the community who were suffering from the same rare disease that I was. So I’m really passionate about it because I went so long without being diagnosed that I didn’t know what was wrong with me and I want people to know that rare diseases do need more awareness. Less than 1% of the population is affected by this and a lot of people go undiagnosed because they don’t realize their symptoms,” Carnegie said.

Since being diagnosed and starting the Ambassador Youth Program, Carnegie has since gotten surgery to prevent the possibility of an aneurysm or hemorrhage. The Aneurysm and AVM Foundation has since become her pageant platform.

Carnegie hasn’t let a rare, potentially fatal condition stop her from being an intelligent, hard-working woman. At only 17 years old she graduated with both a high school diploma and an Associate’s Degree thanks to dual enrollment. Carnegie now attends Stetson University on an academic scholarship and interns at Crowns Magazine.

While going to school full time, Carnegie continues to compete in pageants and now is working towards winning Miss Florida USA. Carnegie started in pageantry in 2016 at the Miss Clay County Fair Pageant. What started as a fun soon turned into a passion that led to Carnegie being crowned Miss Clay County.

Anyone who wants to help her get to Miss Florida USA can donate at www.MissFloridaUSA.com/Sponsor or email pageantgirlerica@yahoo.com.