So much has gone on in the past few months, and I am already halfway through my reign!   I feel so blessed for all of the wonderful experiences I've had so far, and all of the ones I will continue to have even beyond my reign.  It has been such a great life-changing experience to be Ms United States on so many different levels from meeting new people to opening up doors of opportunity, touching the lives of others, and learning more about myself and my potential to make positive change in this world.

As the national spokesperson for Q-SCAN (the Queens Sickle Cell Anemia Network) I was delighted to speak to the New York community and perform with my company G-Volution at their annual banquet.


It was such a great time to attend the Laughing Lunch for Comedy Cures where I learned about many different "laughs" and even made a funny myself on stage! 

I had a great holiday season which seemed to really fly by this year...I met with Brittany Williams, my sister-queen Miss United States who visited New York in December.  We had an amazing bonding time and discussed our goals and dreams for the waves we wanted to make.  Of course, we snuck in a little photo shoot with Angel Sanchez in Times Square on a typical wintry New York evening.  It was a blast!  I'm so proud of my sister Liana Baratta, the new Miss New York United States who will be competing in the Miss United States Pageant this July!  She is a shining positive example for young women and the most kind- hearted individual I know who will make a great impact on empowering our youth. 


I've been doing a great deal with developing my two internet TV shows which are now broadcast every Thursday  Pageant Chat TV and Graziella TV -now being featured by Ustream.TV!!  What an honor!  I am able to get my platform messages across to a wide audience on a weekly basis, and it has been very rewarding to connect with so many diverse groups.

There is sooooo much more to report, but I'll let you absorb this and save the rest for my next post..coming soon, I promise!