Meet Miss Illinois' Outstanding Teen 2021

Kylie Ryder

Local Title: Miss Windy City’s Outstanding Teen

Hometown: Sycamore

Social Impact Initiative: #Drive4Life

"Distracted driving is the fastest growing safety issue on the roads today, but it's also the most preventable."

Kylie Ryder, 19, is a graduate of Sycamore High School in Sycamore, IL. She is currently a freshman at the University of Iowa majoring in Health and Human Physiology and minoring in Dance.

In June of 2021, Kylie was crowned Miss Illinois’ Outstanding Teen after showcasing both her social impact platform, #Drive4Life, and her talent of lyrical dance. Kylie is an accomplished dancer, earning statewide and national recognition for her talents.

Since earning the title, Kylie has been hard at work to bring awareness to distracted driving. Her #Drive4Life social impact initiative focuses on the types of distracted driving, from visual to cognitive elements. Her platform is inspired by a personal experience with distracted driving and how it affected her family.

Social Impact Initiative:
It only takes three seconds of distraction to cause an accident. However, the average text equates to around 5 seconds of distraction.

Social Impact Initiative: "Drive4Life"

A passionate advocate for distracted driving awareness, Kylie is using her year of service as Miss Illinois’ Outstanding Teen to reduce distracted driving in teens and young drivers through developing resources for this demographic and forming partnerships to reach her audience.

Get to know Kylie

She is the oldest of 3 sisters.

She loves to spend time outdoors.

She has been dancing for 15 years.

Her favorite movie is "The Notebook" or "Legally Blonde."

Her dream vacation is to Santorini, Greece.