She’s got style. She’s got grace. She’s not Miss United States, but she might as well be on her way to earning that title.

Renton native Alena Walker recently was named Miss Washington American Beauties National, a title that comes under the American Beauties National Pageant system. And she has her eyes on the big crown.

In October, she will participate in the final pageant in Atlanta, Georgia where she’ll compete to win the national crown.

Walker said she was drawn to this pageant system because “it had substance.”

“(The system) focuses on being beautiful but having substance as a person,” she said. “Being real with yourself, and realizing when you step into a competition or pageant, the crown, we obviously want to win, but what’s important is the goal — Do you grow as a person? Are you making an impact on the lives of people? It causes you to go underneath the makeup. It causes you to focus on yourself. That’s what I love about my system.”

She was introduced to the pageant world through her older sister who also competed in the same system.

“I just saw the love and how they treated her, how they accepted her. They were so positive,” she said on the initial draw to the pageant life.

When Walker first decided to slap on the heels and vie for the crown, she admitted she was afraid.

“I didn’t know if it was for me. But seeing what my system represent, I wanted to be a part of that. When the opportunity opened up, I went for it,” she said.

Walker is running on the platform of “living above anxiety and depression,” an issue that’s close to her heart because it was a demon she had to battle about two years.

“I was working two sales jobs and going to school and having a music career, and all those things like that, so I completely burned out, which was a very scary phase of my life,” she said. “Depression and anxiety were very heavy symptoms of that…. Going through this experience really brought it home to me why I needed to make it my platform and why I needed to speak out about it.”

Walker said she’s made it her life goal to speak out about her experiences to let people who suffer with depression and anxiety know they are not alone.

“I have a spoken word… where a line is ‘If we keep pretending in silence, more people will die.’ I think that’s the problem,” she said. “This negative stigma is causing people to die because they can’t think they can talk about it. And no one is focusing on what that sufferer is going through.”

Currently, she’s busy gearing up for the national stage by dieting, exercising and practicing walking with a book on head. While these skills are important, she said it’s also important to train her mind.

“Mentality is everything — seeing yourself with the crown, focusing on your strengths, while working on your weaknesses.”

When she’s not busy with pageants, Walker is a recording music artist under the name Alena Larie.

Walker will compete for the American Beauties National title from Oct. 11-15 in Atlanta, Georgia.