Valerie Gatto was crowned Miss Pennsylvania in 2014. However, the beauty queen’s life started under very difficult circumstance. Valerie had been vocal about the fact that her mother was raped at knife point and that was how she conceived. She has used her fame to speak on behalf of other children conceived in rape. She states, “I don’t mind being an advocate for something like this. There’s not that many role models for young women out there today that are actually positive and uplifting, and that’s why I got into pageantry.”

Valerie’s mother initially tried to keep her pregnancy a secret but when she finally admitted it, she was met with tremendous support from her family. Valerie’s mother decided to try and turn a negative into a positive.

Valerie says of her mother, “She always would tell me I was her light — I am the light to illuminate the darkness for all to see, and I look at it from that moment of conception, there has been that light associated with darkness.”