Get to Know Miss Metro Jackson 2025, Gracie Bassett
Bassett talks resilience, philanthropy, and faith, both on and off the pageant stage.
Senior biology and chemistry pre-med major, Gracie Bassett, was crowned Miss Metro Jackson 2025 on October 22. This is Bassett’s third title, previously serving as Miss Madison County 2024 and Madison County’s Miss Hospitality 2023.
Growing up, the Madison native believed pageants to be a superficial industry, reducing girls to nothing but a pretty face.
“I didn't do my first pageant until the summer after my sophomore year of college, so I would not consider myself a career pageant girl,” Bassett said. “In fact, I really prided myself in not being a pageant girl, because I just believed so much in the pageant stereotype, and I refused to be someone who would conform to that.”
However, Bassett soon learned there was more to the contests than met the eye.
Her first entry into the world of pomp and pageantry was Miss Hospitality, an organization that seeks to promote economic development and tourism in the Magnolia state. Holding a deep love for her home state, Bassett convinced her close friend and roommate, Loren Wade, to join the competition, too.
“The funny thing is, I did not want to do it,” Wade, also a senior at MC, said. “I’m not as passionate as she is about stuff like that, but she always pushes me out of my comfort zone. She's very ambitious and convinced me to do it somehow. And I'm glad that I did it.”
In May 2023, Bassett and Wade both won their county’s Miss Hospitality and competed at the state level, winning 4th alternate and 1st alternate respectively. Bassett’s success with Miss Hospitality fueled her to enter the Miss America program. Six months later, Bassett won the Miss Madison County title.
Long before she earned any title, Bassett has sought to positively impact her community. The philanthropist has donated her hair 10 times over 17 years. This regular part of her life inspired her to create a donation platform called Hair for Her. Partnering with the Pink Hearts Fund of the Gulf Coast, Hair for Her collects hair donations to provide wigs at a significantly reduced cost.
“When you are someone who is undergoing medically induced hair loss, whether that be because of cancer or another condition, you feel like your life is often out of control,” Bassett said. “You want to have the opportunity to take something back. For a lot of people, one of the first things they can take back is their hair. Getting to be a part of that — reclaiming their confidence and self esteem — is a really special thing for me.”
Being a full-time student and a title holder comes with a lot of responsibilities. It can be a delicate balancing act. When she’s not in the gross anatomy lab, Bassett spends her time hanging out with friends, being a Lead Resident Assistant, mentoring younger pageant girls and regularly participating in community events.
“I realize I'm very fortunate to be able to chase this dream,” Bassett said. “This is my outlet, my escape, my hobby. Sure, you can look at it as a task or another thing to get done, and in a way, yes, it is, but it is just as much a privilege and a joy.”
“She is very ambitious, in a good way, and not many people get to see her daily routine and all the things that she does, and I do,” Wade said. “She handles it with grace. If she needs to step away, she does. Then the next day, she is right back to it. I get to see the behind the scenes of her life and what really fuels her, which is the Lord and good friends.”
The MC student has found the pageant world to be a mission field, recognizing the spiritual darkness that plagues her contemporaries. Girls looking for their identity is a bridge to sharing her faith.
“I've just found that there are a lot of people looking for love and looking for purpose, and getting to enter into that world and carry my faith with me has been a really special experience,” Bassett said.
Through it all, Bassett’s steady anchor has been her faith in the Lord. Everyday, she makes it a priority to spend time in the Bible before doing anything else.
“The first thing that she does when she wakes up is spend time with Jesus,” Wade said. “That's just a strong habit that she's developed that really helps her stay on track. And of course, there's going to be bad days. There's always going to be off days, but that's just one little consistency I've seen her stay in.”
In June 2024, Bassett competed in Miss Mississippi, placing in the top 11 and winning a preliminary talent award and an interview award. She will return to the Miss Mississippi stage in June 2025 with the title of Miss Metro Jackson. After graduating in May, Bassett hopes to attend University of Mississippi Medical Center to become a physician.
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