The pageant title of Miss Hawaiʻi 2025 was bestowed on University of Hawaiʻi–West Oʻahu alumna Emalia Dalire, who graduated in fall 2024 with a bachelor of arts in business administration with a concentration in marketing.
The Kāneʻohe resident, 19, was crowned on May 31 at Hawaiʻi Theatre by the Miss Hawaiʻi Organization, which provides women with the opportunity to promote platforms of community service, share their talents, intelligence, and positive values while serving as role models in our island communities, according to the organization’s website.
“Being crowned Miss Hawaiʻi 2025 is an indescribable honor and a dream come true,” Dalire said in an interview with Hawaiʻi News Now the morning after being crowned. “I feel overwhelmed with gratitude, knowing I get to represent the beauty, culture and mana (power) of our islands. This moment is not just mine. It belongs to every person who believed in me.”
Dalire competed as Miss Kāneʻohe and topped 12 other competitors, called “delegates,” and will move on to represent the state at the Miss America competition in September in Orlando, Fla.
Hula lineage
It may come as no surprise that the talent Dalire showcased at the Miss Hawaiʻi competition was hula. She just competed and placed third in the Miss Aloha Hula category at the 62nd Merrie Monarch Festival held in April in Hilo. Dalire dances for Keolalaulani Hālau ʻŌlapa O Laka under Nā Kumu Keolalaulani Dalire (her mother) and Regina Mākaʻikaʻi Igarashi Pascua.
Keep empowering yourself
The community service initiative that Dalire will focus on throughout her upcoming Miss Hawaiʻi reign is, “K.E.Y. to Life: Keep Empowering Yourself.” It’s a platform she holds close to her heart and the same one she promoted when she was crowned Miss Hawaiʻi Teen Volunteer 2024 in December 2023.
“’The K.E.Y. to Life: Keep Empowering Yourself’ is my message of empowerment to all youth, especially Indigenous people, to be who they are,” Dalire had said in a previous article after winning her Miss Hawaiʻi Teen Volunteer title. “In the words of my mother, ‘The best person in life to be like is yourself,’ and learning about my Hawaiian culture and being proud of my Indigenous heritage, I gained the confidence and determination necessary to create my future, my story.”
Accelerated academic journey
As a freshman at Damien Memorial School, Dalire began attending Windward Community College, simultaneously taking high school and early college classes. The dual enrollment enabled her to graduate a year early from high school in 2022 at the age of 16, then in December of that year, receive two associate degrees from Windward CC in liberal arts and Hawaiian studies along with three certificates of completion.
