No one has really ever actually run for Prom queen. In the past, potential queens have been nominated and one lucky girl was chosen.

But this year at Cary-Grove, a certain senior put herself out there to see if maybe she could get the crown. And she did.

“I would jokingly say to a few people in a funny voice, ‘Juria for prom queen,’ and they said, ‘I would totally vote for you,’” said prom queen Julia Menzel. As part of her campaign, she made little ads and promotional pictures and posted them on the senior Facebook group.

“I started the campaign myself,” she said. “Over 100 people liked the post.”

At first, it seemed as if she was joking, since she went about it in a humorous way. But after getting deeper into it, Menzel realized, “I did have an interest in becoming prom queen. I mean, what high school girl wouldn’t want to be prom queen?”

Menzel did more than just campaign online. She passed out little slips of paper that said “Vote for Julia” on them and made little buttons for herself.

While she was the only candidate to actively campaign, her crowning was still an unlikely event. Menzel had some difficulty in the past with the way people treated her, and dealing with that wasn’t easy.

“I feel that I really have come a long way and that becoming the prom queen really is the best ending I could possibly hope for to the story of some struggles in school,” Menzel said. “It gives me a lot of closure to what happened in the past. And frankly, I was not surprised at all. I kind of knew I would win just because of everyone saying they voted for me, and all the loud cheering when I was walking to the stage.”

“I am still really happy to have so much support from everyone,” she said. Not only is this a perfect ending socially for Menzel, but also the perfect way to finish her high school career.