Starla Hilliard-Barnes has a motto: “Never stop rocking just because you roll.” When she rolls across the stage of the Mrs. American Pageant in Las Vegas this August, she’ll prove just how seriously she takes those words. 

Hilliard-Barnes, a Lakeside mother of four who has been paralyzed twice and climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, was crowned Mrs. Montana American in May and will be the first woman to compete fully from a wheelchair for the title of Mrs. American later this summer.  

“After becoming paralyzed, there were moments when people only saw my wheelchair, and before they saw me, they saw limitations,” Hilliard-Barnes said. “I only see possibilities. I’m not going to let a diagnosis define my future or write the rest of my story.” 

Growing up, Hilliard-Barnes didn’t seem like the type to enter a pageant one day. A self-described tomboy, she spent most of her childhood in the backcountry of Northwest Montana, fishing and riding motorcycles.  

But Hilliard-Barnes's active life outdoors was turned upside down in an instant on a summer day in 2009. 

Hilliard-Barnes, then 21, was riding her motorcycle through downtown Kalispell when a Chevy pickup ran a red light and struck her, shattering her body. The impact broke vertebrae from her neck to mid-back, her ribs, scapula, clavicle, and the bone around her eye. Both lungs were punctured, and her helmet was split in half. 

When she woke up in a hospital room in Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center, her mother was the one to deliver the news that Hilliard-Barnes had been paralyzed. 

With the severity of her injuries, the medical team recommended moving Hilliard-Barnes to a long-term care facility, but her parents couldn’t accept that. They brought Hilliard-Barnes back to Montana, where she learned how to live independently.  

She met her husband, Shannon Barnes, a year and a half later, and the couple started Moving Forward, a volunteer organization focused on adaptive sports in the Flathead Valley. In 2014, she decided to compete in Ms. Wheelchair USA, her first pageant, drawn to the opportunity to promote her work with Moving Forward. Despite her tomboy childhood, she won the national title and used her crown to advocate for expanded opportunities for adaptive athletes.  

As Hilliard-Barnes's profile grew, she was invited to take part in Project Walk Denver, a rehabilitation program, at the program’s new paralysis recovery center. The damage to her spinal cord had been incomplete, and doctors thought she had a 50-50 chance of walking again.  

In Denver, after six years in a wheelchair, Hilliard-Barnes finally stood for the first time on her own. The possibility of learning to walk again felt tantalizingly close. 

And then, the unimaginable happened. 

Hilliard-Barnes and her husband, along with their 3-year-old daughter, were driving to the grand opening of Project Walk Denver, where she was slated to speak, when a box truck slammed into their stopped pickup truck at 70 miles per hour.  

Miraculously, their daughter was not injured in the crash, but Shannon suffered a traumatic brain injury and, in the moment, didn’t recognize his wife or child. Hilliard-Barnes was re-paralyzed at a higher level, losing the mobility she had started to regain in her legs.  

“It felt like the world was crashing in,” Hilliard-Barnes said. She remembered thinking, “When Shannon didn't know who I was, who our kids were... losing my mobility... entire walls were closing in in that moment. It was the people around me and those that supported me that let me know it was going to be okay. If it wasn’t for them, I don’t think I’d be where I am today.” 

If anything, the second accident only fortified Hilliard-Barnes's resolve. In 2016, she competed in Ms. Wheelchair USA again and then became the first woman in a wheelchair to compete at the state level of Mrs. America, a national pageant celebrating married women.  

As she continued to compete in pageants, Hilliard Barnes saw that underneath the makeup and dresses and glamor, the women she was competing alongside were passionate and filled with drive to make a difference in the world.  

“The other women inspire me, challenge me and remind me what true beauty is through their service, their character, and how they uplift others through their platforms.” 

Even so, Hilliard-Barnes thought the 2016 pageant season was her last, as she turned her attention to Moving Forward and raising her children. Forever enamored with the landscape of the Northwest, she challenged herself in the mountains of the Flathead Valley, using a hand cycle to navigate the trails herself.  

And then, in 2020, Hilliard-Barnes was offered the opportunity of a lifetime to fulfill her childhood dream of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. She said yes in an instant but knew Africa’s tallest mountain would be an entirely new challenge.  

“Every step of that mountain reminded me that perseverance matters more than circumstances,” Hilliard-Barnes said. “The mountain wasn’t just a physical challenge to me. It was proof that limitations are often far smaller than we believe.” 

The obstacles Hilliard-Barnes overcame to reach the summit were far from small. Days into the expedition, her trekking chair broke, and the group was six hours from a replacement at the next camp. Shannon and some friends who accompanied them alternated carrying Hilliard-Barnes for the remaining distance.  

This, in addition to the thin mountain air, subzero temperatures, and grueling elevation gain. Yet Barnes didn’t once think of giving up. 

“I made it that far. If I had to army crawl up there, I would have army crawled,” she said. “When we got to the top, it felt like a triumph.” 

Kilimanjaro may be a world away from a pageant stage in Las Vegas, but both are examples that Hilliard-Barnes refuses to let her life be defined by one moment.  

“I actually thought I'd never compete again, but something told me this year that a barrier still needs to be broken,” Hilliard-Barnes explained. “I'm actually thankful I did, because hopefully it could break that barrier for all women in wheelchairs or for little girls out there that want to compete or make a difference.” 

Reporter Elsa Ericksen can be reached at 406-758-4459 or [email protected]. If you value local journalism, pledge your support at dailyinterlake.com/support. 

    Starla Hilliard-Barnes with a team of porters on the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania in 2020. (courtesy Starla Hilliard-Barnes)
  

    Starla Hilliard-Barnes is Mrs. Montana American 2026 and will be the first woman to compete fully from a wheelchair at the national pageant in August. (April Clemente Photography)