The past year has been a whirlwind for Amy Rottero (Ford), who was named Mrs. Tennessee America last spring and has spent a good portion of the past 12 months pursuing the wide range of opportunities that a Mrs. Tennessee enjoys.
"I felt overwhelmed, grateful and honored," she says, when the then-Mrs. Brentwood first learned she had won the honor, which opened the door to a range of rarified experiences.
“It’s been amazing. The highlight was getting to speak at the Tennessee State Capitol about education reform, and I have been involved in an array of different outreaches throughout the state. Of course, I also represented Tennessee in the Mrs. America pageant,” she adds, which was held at the Westgate Resort in Las Vegas over the course of ten days in the summer of 2023.
"Pageantry can sometimes get a bad rep, but it really is a place to find camaraderie with other women and to edify one another,” she says.
That said, it’s perhaps not surprising that Rottero spent a good portion of 2023-24 talking to young people about the importance of having a positive self-image, not to mention cultivating one’s own personal gifts and strengths.
"My cause has been about women’s empowerment and girls’ self-esteem,” says the mother of three, who has two daughters and saw being Mrs. Tennessee as a chance to make a difference in the lives of countless young girls. “I think that self-esteem and how women view themselves really determines what kind of choices they make later in life.”
That mindset has also made her an ideal champion for Queens Closet (an outreach started by Bernadette McCann, the director of Mrs. Tennessee America), one that provides gowns, makeup and accessories to underprivileged girls, so they can attend proms, homecomings and other events.
“During the course of the past year, we spent a lot of time making connections with local designers and stores like the Clothes Tree in Brentwood, which will donate gowns to inner city kids and kids that are struggling financially,” she adds.
Yet for all she accomplished in the past 12 months, Rottero believes it’s the ideal time to move on to the next chapter in her life.
“I am going to miss being Mrs. Tennessee, but I am also ready to crown the next Queen,” which she will do when the 2024 Mrs. Tennessee America pageant. “I feel like I’ve been Mrs. Tennessee the perfect amount of time,” she says, before highlighting some of what she plans to do in the coming months.
"I am currently working on a lifestyle brand called Amy Ford Lifestyle. I’ll also be doing pageant consulting and life coaching, and there are a couple other things that are in the works: maybe a new product, maybe a show of some kind featuring Tennessee and what Tennesseans are about,” she reveals.
And even if not all of her efforts are fruitful, she insists that won’t dissuade her from pushing ahead with whatever she is inspired to do.
In fact, Rottero would never have become Mrs. Tennessee if she hadn’t entered the competition a second time.
"The first time I competed I didn’t win the title, obviously, and at first I didn’t know if I wanted to compete again. But I decided to give it another try, and I won the second time around,” she says, beating out contestants from all over the state.
With that in mind, she has a few bits of advice for those who want to maximize their potential.
"Always believe in yourself and be willing to take a chance on yourself. Your mistakes don’t define you, it’s all about the evolution and the journey,” she says.