South Dakota State alum Miranda O’Bryan has had a busy year as a full-time TV journalist in the Black Hills and winning the title of Miss South Dakota. Recently, she added childrens author to her title after writing her book “Jericho the Journalism Kitty.” 

The book follows O’Bryan’s cat around town while he collects news stories to write. 

O’Bryan said she felt like this was the right time to write the book because her community service project is rooted in literacy that helps provide access, education, and representation. The book was inspired by her cat and educating people on the concept of journalism. 

“It was the idea of being able to teach children and the adults who would read with them or purchase the book for them, what journalism is through an approachable lens,” O’Bryan said.  “Because being a journalist or this concept of journalism is especially important in today’s age.”

The book was also illustrated by South Dakota State University Alumni, Mackenzie Yordy. She is a graphic designer and school teacher and owns her own graphic design business. 

As a graphic designer, she said she can feel rushed sometimes when it comes to finishing artwork and projects. So she enjoyed being able to take her time in this process. 

“It was a really great project, it was challenging,” Yordy said. “I gained great pleasure being able to spend a lot of time on projects and artwork…This was a very beautiful experience being able to live in that work for a good amount of time.”

O’Bryan hopes that the book helps bring a deeper understanding of journalism to children and maybe even adults as well.

O’Bryan graduated from South Dakota State University in 2019, with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and history. During college O’Bryan worked as an intern at KOTA Territory News and that was the start of her career at the news station. 

After graduating Miranda went on to work at KOTA News for three years. She was everything from a reporter to a fill-in anchor, to a morning news anchor, all the way to a nighttime news anchor. 

Since winning the crown of Miss South Dakota, O’Bryan has taken a year off of her journalism career to focus on her Miss South Dakota endeavors. 

“To live this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to the fullest I couldn’t give either one of them enough,” O’Bryan said. “So the career had to give for a year… It is for a year of service to the state.”

Since O’Bryan was a sophomore in college, she has competed in the Miss South Dakota pageant. This year, she took home the title in June. 

In the Miss South Dakota pageant, O’Bryan’s talent was to sing a jazz interpretation of “Blank Space,” by Taylor Swift. She also competed in the pageant with her community service project called “ Page Turners: Fall In Love With Reading.”

With this project, she has been able to create and build “little libraries” across Rapid City. She has donated 40,000 books to the Department of Health, the Department of Child Services, and homeless shelters around South Dakota. 

In her free time, O’Bryan also hosts a podcast called “Page Turners.” In this podcast, she speaks about literature and the deeper meaning of it. You can listen to the podcast on Apple Music. 

Journalism is one of her passions and she hopes to return to it in the future. She did give some advice for future journalists trying to get into the business. 

“It is not an easy career but it is an important one,” she said. “It is your job as a journalist to inform your community, readers, and listeners you are providing them with the facts and information that they not only need but they deserve. I implore any future/current journalist to understand that we do have a very important job in this world.”