Charlotte Ayanna (born Charlotte Lopez; September 25, 1976) is a Puerto Rican-American actress, author and former beauty queen who won Miss Teen USA 1993.
Early life
Ayanna was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, but moved to Vermont at an early age. She had a troubled childhood, spending sixteen years in foster homes after her mother, Emma, was judged to be mentally unfit to look after her children.[1] In 1994, at age 17, she was adopted into a foster home.[2][3] She has since become a spokeswoman for foster children.
Her first national exposure was in 1993, when she became Miss Teen USA.[4]
Following her pageant career, she worked with author Susan Dworkin to write a book, Lost in the System (1996), about her experiences as a foster child and pageant winner.[5]
Lopez then transitioned into acting, making guest appearances on episodes of various television series, including three episodes of Weird Science and one episode of Entourage. Her first acting credit, after changing her name to Charlotte Ayanna, was her appearance in an October 1998 episode of Profiler. She also appeared in the music video for fellow Puerto Rican Ricky Martín's hit "She's All I Ever Had".
After her pageant career ended and her book had been published, she chose to change her surname from Lopez to Ayanna, which she states means "blessed" in Cherokee.[4][6]