When Maggie Espinosa spotted a woman in a sparkling sash riding in the back of a classic car at Coronado’s Fourth of July parade last summer, she was looking at her future.
“Down came a car that said Ms. Senior California,” said Espinosa, a travel journalist who lives in the Alvarado Estates neighborhood near San Diego State University.
“I didn’t know this was such a thing. I’m 65, so I said to my husband, ‘I’m going to look into this.'”
Espinosa did more than look. In February, she was crowned Ms. Senior California 2026 at a pageant in Mission Viejo, beating out a field of competitors that included an AI company founder and a nuclear engineer. She is spending this year representing women 60 and older at events across the state, with her reign culminating at the Ms. Senior America pageant in October at the Tropicana Hotel in Atlantic City.
The pageant was founded in 1972 with a mission to highlight the achievements and continued ambitions of women in their senior years. It’s a cause that resonates personally with Espinosa.
“I want to show people that when you’re my age, you can keep doing things,” she said. “Don’t think there’s an expiration date on your passions.”
Her path to the crown was swift. After spotting the then-reigning queen in the Coronado parade, Espinosa found the organization’s website, submitted an application with a headshot snapped in her backyard and was accepted within weeks. The pageant, held just two months after she applied, required contestants to present a philosophy of life within 35 seconds, perform a talent in under three minutes, walk in an evening gown and field unrehearsed questions from five judges.
For her talent, Espinosa sang “Ave Maria” in Latin, accompanied by a pianist she rehearsed with for a month.
“You know, your voice doesn’t lend itself to every song out there,” Espinosa said. “It’s a song that fits my range perfectly.”
When the first runner-up was announced and her name had not yet been called, Espinosa said she began to sense what was coming, but tried not to get ahead of herself.
“I have lived long enough that you think I got this and then guess what, you don’t got it,” she said. “There’s a lot of impressive women out there.”
But when her name was finally called, 65 years of becoming arrived all at once.
“I got teared up,” she said. “I couldn’t believe it. I was really touched.”
Espinosa is crowned by Ms. Senior California 2025. (Photo courtesy of Espinosa) Espinosa after being crowned Ms. Senior California. (Photo courtesy of Maggie Espinosa) Espinosa’s Ms. Senior California interview. (Photo courtesy of Espinosa)The outgoing queen, Holli Kenley — the same woman Espinosa had seen in the Coronado parade — placed the crown on her head.
“I said, girl, I’m here because of you,” Espinosa said. “It’s a wonderful sisterhood with these women.”
Espinosa’s background is as expansive as her philosophy about life, which she delivered on the pageant stage from memory.
“I believe we all have the privilege to grab life no matter our age,” she said. “Don’t hesitate to grow into the next version of you. Some of my greatest accomplishments have been achieved as a senior.”
A longtime journalist and travel writer, she earned her master’s degree in tourism and hospitality from SDSU at 59. She walked California’s 800-mile El Camino Real mission trail from San Diego to Sonoma, chronicling the journey on social media as friends, strangers and even a Franciscan friar in his brown habit joined her along various legs of the route. More recently, she hiked a stretch of the Stevenson’s Trail in the south of France — solo, with a rented donkey named Igor carrying her pack.
Espinosa in France with her donkey Igor. (Photo courtesy of Maggie Espinosa)She also channeled her love of animals into a pet charity called Swag Bag, which she founded in 2023 in honor of her late bichon frise, Marcel. The program provides adoption bags filled with blankets, toys and treats to new pet owners through Rancho Coastal Humane Society in Encinitas.
The crown comes with a full schedule. As reigning Ms. Senior California, Espinosa will make appearances, give talks and ride in parades throughout the year — look for her at Coronado’s Fourth of July event, where the whole journey began. She will then head to Atlantic City in October to compete at nationals.
But for Espinosa, the crown is less about competition than the message it empowers her to spread.
“Everybody has dreams,” she said. “If you have it, find a way to go after it. It may have changed through the years, but go for it. It’s what makes life enjoyable.”
And for those who think time has passed them by?
“If you think at 65, no, I’m too old to do it, well, one day you’ll be older, god willing and the crick don’t rise, and you’ll look back and go, why didn’t I do that at 65.”
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