👸 Newest reporter, Florida native Emily McLeod shares pageantry experience

ORLANDO, Fla. – You’ve probably noticed a new face during our News 6 newscasts. Emily McLeod is our newest reporter but not new to Central Florida.

Emily is a Maitland native who attended Winter Park High School, with lots of family still living in the area.

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While Emily is a graduate of Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, she wasted no time getting back to the Sunshine State, spending the last several years working for a news station in Panama City as a weekend anchor and multimedia journalist. She’s now continuing her career in the area she grew up in.

“It’s definitely been a huge blessing to get to do the news in your hometown. It’s a little weird too because I know all of these areas but covering stories and interviewing people you just see it in a different light and I think that’s so unique... Orlando has changed so much since I’ve lived here full-time,” Emily said.

What you may not know about Emily is that she has a history in pageantry, holding several titles and even competing in the Miss Florida pageant.

“I started doing pageants when I was in high school. My first pageant was Miss Space Coast Teen USA back in 2011. It was such a special experience and when I won my first pageant it was like the bug bit me,” Emily said. “At first I was a little shy, I wasn’t sure about competing in pageants. I wasn’t very outspoken and through pageants, I got so comfortable with public speaking and the interview portion of the competition.”

Emily admits she wasn’t exactly on board with competing in pageants at first.

“I’ll be honest, I had the stigma in my head at first and didn’t know if I wanted to do it. The stigma that pageant girls are just a pretty face, but these girls are brilliant individuals and they’re so smart. Some are lawyers, they’re teachers, they’re journalists and they’re multilayered and such a diverse group of women. It’s a really great experience to make friends with people you maybe would have never met before,” Emily said.

Don’t let her history of pageantry fool you. She is a hustler. As a multimedia journalist, she is a one-woman-band reporter; acting as her own camera person, writing and editing all of her own stories that air during our newscasts.

You can follow all of Emily’s reports on News 6 and catch her on the anchor desk filling in during the weekend newscasts.

Check back to the News 6 Insider page for more exclusive content, behind-the-scenes stories and giveaways.

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