For the 2015 Miss Heart of Dixie’s Outstanding Teen Emily Tingle, 17, a rising senior at Warren Central High School, the decision to become involved with the Miss America Organization had some history.

Tingle, the daughter of Shelley and Jeb Tingle, said her favorite part of the organization is their affiliation with Children’s Miracle Network, their national platform.

“As someone who has been in treatment at Batson’s, I feel personally connected with them,” she said. “I feel like they really promote service work and what you do with your title and your crown above any other pageant organization.”

Tingle said she started competing in the Outstanding Teen pageant because she wants to be in the Miss Mississippi pageant in the future.

“My first one I did my sophomore year of high school,” she said. “This is my first title.”

Tingle’s platform is Caring for Foster Children, and the platform organization she founded is called 37 Books.

“The 37 stands for the 3,700 children in the state of Mississippi that are in foster care, and the two O’s in the word books make up the zeros in the number,” she said. “It was very easy for me to choose because with my blood disorder I started looking more toward adoption because I always wanted to be a mother since I was a child and be like my mom.”

In doing research, Tingle realized children in foster care need extra help, which also helped her decide to found 37 Books.

“I think these are the children who need most of our help in our country and our state,” she said. “Once they leave foster care at the age of 18, 66 percent of them end up homeless, in jail or dead within the first year. I believe that through bettering the conditions of foster care and helping these children obtain goals like going to college or some sort of skill that we can better our delinquency rate in the state of Mississippi.”

In two months she has raised more than 1,000 books and more than $500 for the cause, and she has donated the majority to the local children’s shelter.

Tingle said she has been busy preparing for the Miss Mississippi’s Outstanding Teen pageant.

“I’ve been doing a lot of volunteer work, practicing my talent every day and practicing my walks and preparing for interview, since that’s a big part of it and just promoting my platform a lot,” she said.

Tingle will play “El Matador” by Melody Bober on piano for the state competition this weekend.

Tingle is the president of Rho Kappa, the honors history club, and is also a member of Mu Alpha Theta, National Honor Society and Red Cord Service program.

“I don’t know where I want to go to college, but I do know I want to major in political science and English and minor in pre-law and history, and I want to be a domestic lawyer,” she said.

Tingle said she may run for state Senate one day, but for now she’s just focused on getting through this weekend.

“I’m excited,” she said. “I hope I get to be Miss Mississippi’s Outstanding Teen 2015.”