Mari Pepin is talking it out!

Mari stopped by the “Talking It Out with Bachelor Nation” podcast and opened up about her pageant journey with co-hosts Mike Johnson and Bryan Abasolo.

If you’ve been keeping up with Mari, you know that she’s currently representing her hometown of Luquillo in the Miss Mundo Puerto Rico pageant.

And this isn’t Mari’s first major pageant: She previously won Miss Maryland USA in 2019 and placed in the Top 10 at Miss USA.

Now, Mari is opening up about the negative stigmas surrounding the pageant world and why they aren’t all true.

The Bachelor Nation star said, “There is a huge stigma about pageantry in general. People think it’s just about physical beauty or that it’s just a bunch of girls that run around in swimsuits. And while those are a part of the competition, it’s not just based on the physical aspect. We are in pageantry because we’re passionate, we’re driven, we’re hardworking. This is hard work.”

Mari continued on, saying, “The amount of time, energy, and work I’ve put in over the past few months is a ton, and we’re not even at the final pageant yet. It’s a lot! You have to be really disciplined for this. It takes a lot more than just a pretty face to win and to be an effective titleholder. You have to put in work and be involved in your community.”

Mari also addressed why so many of these negative stigmas exist surrounding pageants.

“There’s also a stigma that pageant girls aren’t very smart because the moments that go viral are of women messing up their answers. That is hard; you’re in front of a huge live audience with lots of pressure! But you only see the mess-ups, you don’t see all the brilliant, well thought out answers that people give on a daily basis,” she explained.

Mari shared why it’s been so important for her to represent her home country in a pageant, especially after thinking her pageant career was over.

She said, “I have always wanted to represent Puerto Rico and compete there. The reason I haven’t before is because I was in school in Maryland when I won Miss Maryland USA. Then, I decided to go on ‘The Bachelor’ and ended up on ‘Paradise’ where I got engaged.”

But it was actually Mari’s fiancé Kenny who really pushed her to compete one last time.

She shared, “I thought that my pageant career was over, to be honest, but I decided to do my research and I’m still eligible to compete. I was born in Puerto Rico and I’m from there, so I’m allowed to compete there.”

The competition started shortly after she confirmed her eligibility, and the rest is history!

Mari will be officially competing for Miss Mundo Puerto Rico in June, and the pageant has a bunch of events lined up around the entire island leading up to the competition.

We’ll be rooting for Mari as she goes for the crown!

If you want to check out more of her conversation with Mike and Bryan, check out this week’s “Talking It Out with Bachelor Nation” episode below.