By: Zac Wellerman
Professor, Author, Beauty Queen, Pharmacist, Role Model, Wife and Mother.
Local pharmacist and East Texas native Dr. Jennifer Jackson holds many titles in life, including a pageant queen representing women of all sizes across the globe.
Jackson, 41, a pharmacy manager at the Walmart Neighborhood Market on ESE Loop 323 in Tyler, is the reigning Ms. Plus Intercontinental, which represents women sizes 12 or higher and over the age of 40.
The honor is a part of the Miss Plus World Pageant, which is an international pageant celebrating the beauty and accomplishments of women. She won Ms. Plus for the United States title last June and later won Miss Plus Intercontinental in August.
“I feel honored to be able to speak for a demographic that’s been silenced by society if you don’t fit this cookie cutter shape,” Jackson said. “Women have never been made to fit into a cookie cutter shape. People have never been made that way.”
Longview native Jackson got started in pageantry in 2014 when she lost 120 pounds after working to get healthier. She then decided to do the scariest thing she could think of: competing in the Texas contest of Miss Black USA.
“I did it, and guess what, I failed horribly,” she said. “I went and spent way too much and invested all this money.”
However, the story continued when Nanette Weeks, one of the pageant clinic advisers, asked to help Jackson in her next pageant.
Weeks said Jackson didn’t fit the brand for that pageant, and she started coaching her. Watts and Jackson grew to have a mentorship, which later became a mother-daughter type relationship.
“I saw something in her because she speaks very well and she’s poised,” Weeks said. “I had the pleasure of seeing her win every pageant afterwards.”
About a year later, she got a call from Weeks about the Ms. American Elegance Woman Pageant for Texas. Watts encouraged her to participate and paid for her entry. Jackson won the title for Texas and later won the national title and several other honors.
“You got to find your fit in pageantry,” Jackson said. “I kind of wanted to do something that challenged me. I found that the biggest thing that I dealt with was myself.”
She went on to compete in the Miss All World Beauties and won in the married women division.
She called competing in Miss Plus the most challenging thing she’s ever done. Ultimately, a lesson in patience from Weeks helped her.
“If it’s your time but not your season, it won’t grow appropriately,” she said. “When it’s time and season for you, it’s for you. A lot of women who were there were amazing. It was just my time and season.”
She now represents plus-sized women globally through her role as the second titleholder of Ms. Plus Intercontinental.
“I believe it’s really important for women to see you can be beautiful at any age and any size,” Jackson said. “I am a spokesmodel for the plus-sized demographic.”
Weeks founded the Miss Plus World pageant in 2018 with friend Constance Zehner. The contest has two categories: Miss Plus World (women ages 20 to 39) and Ms. Plus Intercontinental (women ages 40 and above). She said there are several plus-size pageants in the U.S., but just a few international contests. Miss Plus World is meant to promote sisterhood and cultural awareness.
“She’s very humble. She tries hard to fulfill her duty,” Weeks said. “She’s always thinking what else can I do to make an impact. I’ve seen her confidence level increase, especially in pageantry.”
Through the pageant process, Jackson said she has learned the importance of women owning who they are and being able to be leaders.
She remembers standing out in middle school as the 5’8” girl when everyone else was 5’1.” She was also the 50-yard line dancer for the Longview High School Viewettes. She hopes her experiences can help young girls who feel different and show they are loved.
“I was just made with rubber skin. I think if you really want to change a nation, build women, and you will see a residual change that permeates through everything,” Jackson said. “I don’t care if you’re big or small. It doesn’t matter. I just think we thick ones have a little bit more potential energy in there to extend. I’ve never been apologetic whether I was bigger or smaller.”
Jackson explained that her parents taught her some of the most intriguing people are different, which benefited in life and the pageant contests.
She said the judges want to see people comfortable in their own skin, be able to represent the brand and do something that leaves an impression. For her, the most important thing is to live a healthy life, but not for anyone else.
“I do believe every person has been made beautiful,” she said. “All of us have the opportunity to show our own personal beauty. Confidence radiates.”
Outside of the pageant scene, she is also a book author, educator, community volunteer, pastor, mother and wife.
She said her time doing mission work around the world while in college got her invested in people and helping them.
When her father got sick, she was inspired to go from medical to pharmacy school.
“I really wanted to know how drugs did what they did to the human body,” Jackson said. “I saw his whole life shift, and that was enough of a persuader for me to venture into pharmacy.”
The experiences of higher education and mission work helped show her the diversity of opportunities available.
“I never saw an African-American woman as a pharmacist in Longview. I never knew women as pharmacists,” she said. “It was only Caucasian males in white coats, and I didn’t know how broad the field was.”
She also teaches biology at Texas College as an adjunct professor, and teaches classes at her husband’s church, Temple of Deliverance and Healing (TODAH) church in Tyler, where she became a pastor in December.
Her husband, Laramie, founded the international church group in 2012 in Longview. They later moved the church to a former salon at 130 N. Glenwood Blvd. in Tyler. They have two children, a 9-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter.
Laramie Jackson said his wife is persistent and doesn’t give up until she accomplishes her goal.
“She’s a very hard worker. It’s exciting because I get to see her in her element,” he said. “It’s pretty exciting to be married to a beauty queen.”
Patric Taylor, who has been friends with the Jacksons for five years, called them loyal, accountable and pillars in the community. She said Jennifer Jackson is confident in herself and what she does.
“She’s like a take charge (type) person, pushing people to achieve their highest potential,” Taylor said. “She empowers them to embrace change and not be complacent, but work toward their ultimate goals in life.”
Jackson is also a co-author of a series of two collaboration books, “She Is The Ish,” with fellow pageant queens about lessons in empowerment. The first is subtitled “This Is Your Superpower!” and the second is “Crown Me Queen.”
“I run the way I do because it’s the season to do it. When it’s time for me to sit down, I’ll sit down,” she said. “I serve to impact where I live. It’s really important because my babies are here and I want to see their mom and dad helping here. We do things without the desire of being seen.”