Miss Birmingham Imani Muse said she remembers the first time she was around gunshots.

She was 7 and in Chicago. She remembers the feeling of a security guard lying on top of her to protect her from stray bullets.

“And I remember going to my mom and saying ‘I don’t know what happened’ and she was too stunned to even explain it. How does a mother explain to her 7-year-old daughter that you could have been shot and killed?”

Muse, now 21, wants to use her platform as Miss Birmingham to raise awareness about nonviolence and violence prevention.

“Gun violence is something I’ve always been around and it’s really something I want to spread awareness for and get more people to realize this is a big issue that too many people are experiencing,” Muse said.

So far this year, 53 people have been killed in Birmingham, a majority by guns, according to the Birmingham Police Department. Gun violence became the leading cause of death among Alabama youth in 2021.

Growing up in southside Chicago, Muse started competing in pageants when she was 5. Despite loving the pageant life, community service and academics, Muse said she also remembers feeling unsafe going outside as a child.

Then, at the age of 15, Muse found out that a close family friend, Jaylon Mckenzie, was shot and killed before his eighth grade graduation.

“I experienced it all over again at just the age of 15. It was about five days before my 16th birthday, where I got a very devastating call about a family friend that had gotten shot a couple of days before his eighth grade graduation and he passed away,” Muse said.

“And about two months ago, I was in Birmingham, having fun with my sorority sisters…and someone opened fire. And I remember running and I even cut my leg on a thorn branch just trying to get to a safe space.”

In an effort to ensure that other young people don’t experience the same tragic death as Jaylon Mckenzie, Muse started Small Acts Matter, a community service initiative, in 2017.

“It’s all about encouraging people to know that it is within you to be the change you wish to see in this lifetime…I want less and less people to turn out like me with these experiences, or even like my close family friend who died before eighth grade graduation because of gun violence and people’s negligence towards it,” Muse said.

“It affects this entire nation. That’s why it was so important for me to use my voice, my stories, my platform to be able to get it out to as many people as possible to know that this is impacting not just you, not just me, but everybody.”