Aspiring Philanthropist Alyssia Duda Wins 2023 Windy City Outstanding Teen

2023 is looking bright for teen ballerina and philanthropist Alyssia Duda. Saturday, January 7th at the Miss Chicago Pageant, she was crowned Miss Outstanding teen of 2023.

“I’m super excited to be Miss Windy City Outstanding Teen. This is my first pageant, and this has been an exciting experience.”, Alyssia is quoted in an interview after the pageant.  She will be continuing to the next level  June 6,2023 and representing Chicago in the Miss Illinois Outstanding Teen Competition  at the Marion Civic Center. This is on top of her being awarded the Peyton Newman Talent Award for her performance in Classical Ballet.

This honor is another notch in the sash of achievements for Alyssia who has been studying ballet since the age of 3. She currently studies with Joffrey Ballet Academy of dance in Chicago and has been in several productions of The Joffery Ballet ,The Nutcracker choreographed by Tony Award Winning Christopher Wheeldon. When Alyssia isn’t practicing her plies, she is building her non-for-profit organization Alyssia’s Dream, which works in tandem with her Dream Big Initiative; a series of workshops to instruct and reassure her fellow dreamers. She was inspired to create the NFP while shopping with her mother. It was then she realized how expensive ballet was, and the challenge it posed for some of her classmates. Through Alyssia’s Dream, she wants all girls to have the freedom to continue to believe in themselves and their dreams. Her journey and her passion to Dream Big is illustrated in her children’s book  “ Alyssia’s Dream”, written by the teen dreamer herself.