Army veteran and beauty queen makes teaching women self-defense skills her mission
By Sharon Lawson
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ATLANTA (WUPA) — A metro Atlanta Army veteran and beauty queen is turning a personal tragedy into a mission to protect young women.
Raquel Riley Thomas is behind a growing self-defense movement aimed at teaching other women life-saving skills.
Thomas is the founder of DefendRiley. She wants to give women the ability to defend themselves should the need arise.
Thomas’s drive comes from a deeply personal place. After losing her mother to suicide in 2013, she learned that her mother had survived an assault. Thomas lived through similar trauma herself.
That discovery pushed her to launch the DefendRILEY initiative, which provides hands-on self-defense training built on awareness, confidence, and action.
“You fast forward to now, I’m taking martial arts, and I wanted to do something in honor of her, and I decided to start DefendRILEY,” Thomas said. “I wanted to make sure that I was really focused on getting young women and young girls out there getting self-defense classes.”
A senior red belt in taekwondo, Thomas trains under Master Tommy Cho in Marietta and mentors women to put themselves and their safety first.
“They’ve got to take the time and understand that, just like you want to go get your hair done, just like you like to go get your nails done. Guess what? I got to go to self-defense class,” she said.
Thomas is working towards her black belt while staying focused on plans to turn her program into a nonprofit that would offer scholarships to make self-defense accessible to young women and girls.
The metro Atlanta woman’s strength comes from a lifetime of service. As a former Army captain, Thomas was inducted into the Library of Congress. She’s also this year’s reigning Elite Queen of the World, redefining what power looks like.
For Thomas, her classes are a way to turn survivors into warriors and prepare the next generation to step into adulthood protected, not powerless.
“It’s not a want, it’s a need,” she said. “You have to learn how to protect yourself because no one else will.”
To learn more about DefendRILEY, visit the program’s website.
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