Miss America contestant reveals surprising day job as Massachusetts police officer

Ashlyn Mercier has spent her career wearing a badge.

Now, she's hoping to wear one of the country's most coveted tiaras.

The Westborough, Massachusetts, police officer is competing in Miss America.

The final competition takes place Sept.

6 at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Mercier is also the first police officer to be named Miss Massachusetts.

"I think there's not one single look for what a female police officer is supposed to look like," Mercier told Fox News Digital.

"And if we say that there is, that's just wrong because, at the end of the day, yes, female law enforcement officers only make up approximately 14% of the force in the United States, but we don't have to look a certain way.

NAVY VETERAN TRADES MILITARY UNIFORM FOR MISS GEORGIA SASH FOLLOWING HEARTBREAKING LOSS "People are so multifaceted, women are so multifaceted and I'm just trying to show young girls that they can chase all of their dreams simultaneously," Mercier said.

"They don't have to pick one thing and make that their entire identity." The glitzy competition dates to a 1921 beauty contest in Atlantic City, New Jersey , held a year after the 19th Amendment guaranteed women the right to vote.

The organization awards scholarships and gives its titleholder a national platform for community service and advocacy.

Mercier hopes to raise awareness of her cause, Nick's Courage: One Smile Goes a Mile, named after her younger brother, Nicholas, a two-time pediatric cancer survivor.

The initiative aims to bring positivity and hope to children battling critical illnesses .

In 2025, she took a year off from pageant competition to follow in her father's footsteps and attend the police academy.