Miss Louisiana 2015 April Nelson said she started singing and performing as soon as she could talk.

Initial favorites were “I’m a Little Teapot” and “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” She started private voices lessons in first grade and carried her love of music through a bachelor of arts in the field from Oklahoma City University. She graduated in 2014 and has made a career performing in theater and private companies in Mandeville. She won the talent preliminary Friday night singing “Climb Every Mountain.”

She said her love of volunteering started at an early age too. Her parents started taking her to Keep Mandeville Beautiful, an event where volunteers pick up trash and work to beautify the community, when she was five or six.. “It’s a big day for the city,” Nelson said.

Nelson’s platform is IOU — Improving Others Through U. She said the great part of volunteering is that it’s not limited by age.

“Everyone can get involved,” she said.

She said singing “became one of my big ways of giving back,” starting with singing for the Girls Scouts and at church. Since then, she’s worked with the Boys & Girls Club of America, A Child’s Wish, the NFL Player’s Association, Encore, Habitat for Humanity and Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. She noted she’s looking forward to being able to tie her platform with the Miss America Organization’s philanthropy of choice, Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.

In addition to volunteering, Nelson works “a lot of different jobs.”

She’s performed in shows at La Petite Theater in New Orleans and started earning Actor’s Equity points recently. Nelson said Actor’s Equity is like the Screen Actor’s Guild for stage performers, and once you’ve hit 50 points, you’re part of the union and “know you’ve made it pretty big.”

Nelson also performs as a princess for hire with Kellie’s Characters. She said she appears at parties and large events as Cinderella, Elsa and Ariel. She said she’s been carried into parties in a mermaid tail about 20 times.

“I can sing ‘Let It Go’ in my sleep,” she joked.

She also teaches 2- to 5-year-olds at a Montessori school and works with a street marketing team.

Nelson said her experience with the Miss Louisiana Organization has helped her pay for her education. She earned more than $70,000 through pageants and has been self-supporting.

“I never thought I’d be able to do that,” she said, “performers are usually starving artists.”

Nelson said being able to pay for her education was “so empowering” and she doesn’t know any other program that offers so many opportunities for young women.

This was Nelson’s last year to perform in the Miss Louisiana pageant before aging out. She competed two years and said more than 20 girls this year were new to the pageant “every one of them sweet peaches.”

“I think coming back makes you better,” Nelson said. “You learn so much in that one week. I learned more about myself in that one week than in six months of prep.”

She said now she thinks she’s “pretty resilient” and can overcome anything. Competing has helped her be more confident.

If you want to compete in Miss Louisiana, “you have to do it, period. This is the most wonderful opportunity I’ve been presented with in my life.”

She specifically talked about the ability to network with new people, perform in large-scale venues and make new friendships.

“The girls in the pageant are genuinely that nice,” Nelson said. “I was overwhelmed by my pageant sisters running up to me and telling me how proud they were.”Fun facts about Miss Louisiana 2015 April Nelson