The 2021 Mrs. New Jersey America is heading to Las Vegas to compete in the Mrs. America Pageant. Dr. Ellen Osei James is using her role to promote mental and physical health.

James says she didn’t think she would still be doing pageants after becoming a wife and mother. But she has since stepped into the Mrs. America arena where she is redefining what it is to be a wife, mother and leader.

“It doesn’t matter where you are in life or what it is that you’re going through, if it’s in your heart and you have a desire to do it and you have the proper support and you have the right team, then you can get it done,” she says.

Osei James is an occupational therapist, new wife, new mom and the current Mrs. New Jersey America 2021.

“Having to balance everything I have going on in my life right now has been absolutely nuts,” she says. “It’s been insane, I’ll be honest about that.”

The 35-year-old says she has never been busier, but that it is all about establishing a healthy rhythm, having a solid support system and a sunny disposition.

“As challenging as it is, I tell myself that this is what it is. This is what it takes to be Mrs. America. And I want people to understand that and look at me and say, ‘If she was able to do that with all these things going on, then I can jump into my dreams too,” Osei James says.

Osei James won the Mrs. New Jersey Pageant just four weeks after giving birth to her second child. She will compete in the Mrs. America Pageant 10 weeks after giving birth.

“So that was, I would say hands down, the most challenging things I’ve ever done in my life – was having a baby and then jump back onto a stage and do a pageant,” she says. “There was just something inside of me that kept on saying, ‘Just keep going. You know why you’re doing this,’ despite my fear of what my body was going to look like afterwards.”

She is trying her platform in with her passion.

“That is my goal, to bring power back to women and families that are living with different physical health-related and mental health-related challenges and to be able to thrive and live beyond any barriers that they are experiencing at the time,” she says.