Editor’s note: This article has been updated as of Nov. 5 to include an interview with the winner.

The Northern Star’s Halloween Costume Contest is closed, and the winner is Cecilia Lucente, a graduate student on the clinical mental health counseling track.

Lucente won the competition with 79% of the vote.

Lucente submitted the mermaid Barbie costume after attending a Barbie-themed Halloween party.

Lucente has won two $15 Starbucks gift cards.

HOW DID YOU MAKE YOUR COSTUME?

“Everything was from Amazon, and I kind of did some shopping around and a little bit of trial and error of kind of what mermaid Barbie I wanted to look like, and I got an inspiration from a Barbie I bought at Target to, kind of, see what color hair I want what I wanted, like, the tail to look, like, so it’s kind of where that came from.”

“Also, the new Barbie movie Dua Lipa is the mermaid Barbie, so the blue hair Dua Lipa was also inspiration for that.”

WHY MERMAID BARBIE?

“Honestly, it was a good excuse to show a little bit of skin for a party. Um, but I felt like – I know it’s a little bit of a risque picture to submit for the Northern Star but I was like, ‘eh, it is what it is.’”

“I feel like nobody else was gonna go as mermaid Barbie. I feel like people kind of went with, like, there was, like, a cowboy Barbie there was, like, veterinarian Barbie, like, hippie Barbie. So, kind of, like, when you think of other Barbies, like, I kind of, I always think of, like, a cowboy Barbie, and just, like, with the Barbie movie recently the cowboy outfit – everybody went as that for Halloween, um, and so I didn’t really think anybody was gonna go as mermaid Barbie.”

DID YOU HAVE A BACKUP COSTUME IDEA?

“I do, I do – I was gonna go – which, I kind of had like a two-part outfit because I didn’t want to wear a mermaid tail the entire night because we ended up having, like, it was like a very, like, low-key get-together, um, and we ended up watching the Barbie movie, so I kind of, like, switched into like a Barbie, like, sweat suit; and so, my second option, I guess, would have been like slumber party, like, sleepover Barbie.”

ANYTHING ELSE YOU’D LIKE TO ADD?

“I appreciate everybody that voted for me and I did love seeing everybody else’s costumes. I feel like more people look scarier, and my costume was not too scary. So, it was kind of nice to see the diversity of the other submissions as well.”

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Find about the other finalists on our website here.