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Shakar Soltani, Ms. Texas Petite 2024 with a Piper Cherokee. Photography courtesy of Brent Winfrey.
On November 12th Shakar Soltani, a pilot and aviation advocate, was named the 2024 Ms. Texas Petite. Shakar will take her platform of diversity and inclusion in aviation to the big stage for the USA Petite National Pageant. The pageant will be held in Chicago in July 2024 where Shakar will compete for the national title.
At the Petite USA pageant, finalists from each state compete for the spot to represent the United States at the Universal Petite Pageant. Finalists from different countries compete for the Universal title at this pageant. To be eligible to compete in this series of pageants, contestants must be 5'6" or shorter. The vision of the pageants is to empower and celebrate petite beauty and give them a voice for other petite women across the world.
Shakar's platform for the Texas and now the national pageant is to empower women in aviation. This platform is important to Shakar for many reasons. She became a flight attendant at the age of 23. A few months into the job, she flew with a woman pilot that changed her life for the better. It was the first female pilot Shakar had ever met. This moment planted a seed in Shakar. She had a clear vision of what her future could be. Since then, Shakar has become a private pilot and is working on the rest of her training to become a professional pilot. Along the way, she has helped and motivated many women to take to the sky.
There are multiple avenues to empower women to get involved in aviation. A few ways Shakar has helped inspire the future generation of pilots, air traffic controllers, flight attendants and maintenance personnel is by volunteering at career days, hosting podcasts, giving speeches at her alma mater and contributing to children's books. Aviation outreach is an important step in recruiting and retaining women in the aviation industry. This is critical in an industry that lacks qualified personnel as well as women. Promoting women in aviation can assist in the staffing issues seen across the aviation industry while also promoting diversity.
Shakar sharing her tiara with kids. Photography courtesy of Shakar Soltani.
Shakar is excited to see what this year as Ms. Texas Petite holds while empowering local women in Texas as well as women across the United States and the world to consider aviation is a career destination. Outreach in aviation is key to promoting growth in the aviation industry. Shakar's platform as Ms. Texas Petite is accomplishing just that.