M
rs. Illinois American
2021 winner, Alisa
Bailey Stevens was
born in Cleveland, OH in 1969. Raised by her loving parents Douglas and Emma Bailey and her siblings Gary and Angie. She entered her first pageant at the age of 15. She competed in Miss Teen Ohio, unfortunately she lost to someone by the name of Halle Berry. Yes, that Halle Berry. She went on to graduate college with a nursing degree from Kent State in ‘93. Three years later she moved to Chicago.
She met Kevin in 2001 and six months after tying the knot, Alisa was diagnosed with lupus and was told that it may not be possible to conceive children. Her words to Kevin were “you didn't sign up for this.” In return he said, “you heard my vows, I signed up for this.”
It took her 4 years
to come to grips
with the
diagnosis - her
past references of
the disease were
wheelchair/bed
bound or had
died. Life as she
knew it was done
and she was
ready to give up.
A year after of her
diagnosis she
gave birth to a
healthy baby boy
Christian, but
during her
pregnancy she
was in and out of
doctors’ offices,
taking countless
medications,
constantly
thinking about
losing the baby; it
was a rough pregnancy to say the least. After coming home from the hospital, she came down with a horrible lupus flare-up, Kevin was deployed to Iraq, and they had just moved into a new home in the suburbs. She remembers trying to feed her newborn while having a 103-degree fever and also working a full-time job… her mental health was suffering and her mom moved in from Ohio to help.
From 2002 until 2009 she did what she knew how to do, she “kept it moving” but she felt she was spiraling and remembered what her father told her before he passed from cancer. “I used to ask God, Why Me? until one day I realized how selfish… Why Not Me? What is the life lesson about and what can I bring to other people?” It was time to take the gloom and doom out of her situation by addressing her mental health, take back control of her medications (with guidance of providers) and tackle her physical health with diet changes and exercise. In 2010 she was pregnant with Victoria and it was a much healthier pregnancy experience.