pageants aren't like porn

Before you think the worst, please let me explain. I need to get this off my chest and it has to be said from a certain point of view. I have heard one too many successful women state when asked about their pageant history as a titleholder, that they really didn't want to do a pageant. First of all, winning a crown, of any size is a huge honor and privilege. This is being said from an athlete who had never watched let alone attempted a pageant, but happened upon one and ended up seeing the positives much like Sandra Bullock's character in Miss Congeniality. The vast number of sheer entries per year, per pageant is astounding and the pageant world is one to be taken seriously. I didn't. I was taught a valuable lesson in what pageants truly can do in changing young women's lives for the better.  So why the stigma surrounding competing or God-forbid, winning a pageant? So few times do I hear how incredible the opportunity to represent a state, cause, school, or entire country truly is. Instead people are shunned into saying it was a hoax or it was something they didn't really want to do. Really? I get that most times entering a pageant is either a highly random or supremely planned event in a girl's life. I can see how the sheer amazement of the situation happens. It happened to me. What I am talking about is totally different. Somehow along the way, being deemed a "pageant girl" is like becoming a porn star and entering the dark world of pornography. You aren't valued or seen as a real person for some reason. Why is it so horrible to be labeled a pageant winner? You aren't selling your soul or your body despite being in a swimsuit on national television. Big whoop. Have you seen music videos today?  Michelle Pfeiffer, Halle Berry, Diane Sawyer, Vanessa Williams are all guilty. I get that people don't want to be pigeon-held by the "beauty queen" image people still seem to have in their minds when you share your accomplishment with them. And pageants just like Nascar, WWE or figure skating, is not for everyone, and not every one realizes their value. You were chosen for some reason by a panel of two separate judging panels that put your name as #1 on their ballots. They saw something special in you and decided that YOU were the best woman in the bunch. You didn't sell out, give in, or take the wrong road that makes it necessary for you to apologize. Oh, and more often than not, you worked your ass of to get there.

There's nothing to be ashamed of. Get over it.

I hate that people that could never attempt a pageant have the ability to make the success of others feel anything but awesome. It's the same mentality that would prohibit these women from putting themselves in the position to even enter a contest like this. Lord knows putting yourself out there and being vulnerable, honest, and completely in the moment for a wild adrenaline rush also known as a "beauty pageant" would be too much of a challenge for them. It's not 1950, a lot has changed since the bathing beauty pageant. They call them competitions now...and for good reason. It takes more than a pretty face, a nice figure, white teeth and perfectly coifed hair. Let's face it, name a profession where looks isn't what people notice or gossip about? We live in a visual world. Pageantry wasn't the culprit and it's not the sole reason women win pageants anymore. So why do they get such a bad wrap? Pageant girls aren't all the same, just like any profession. How do we all get lumped into being the same brainless robots groomed to perform mindless deeds in heels? Why is participating in a pageant somehow bad, wrong or silly? We are all the same. Pageants are really ugly competitions where true beauty isn't even considered, it's merely the exterior judges see. Scoff. You couldn't be more wrong.

I don't write about my experiences in these competitions enough and like having to divulge time and time again on radio and TV shows in abundance, I wasn't raised doing pageants. My life was nothing like what these people assume my life to be, thus they couldn't have been more wrong in assuming they knew who I was or what I was about. I loved setting them straight, proving my point that pageants are not at all what you think they are and declaring that the world of pageantry is more than what meets the eye, oddly enough. I am simply sick of the negative ideas and ignorant comments that made me have to constantly defend my title, my reasons for entering and the true greater purpose being involved with the Miss Universe Organization. My pageant experience is unlike most, I won all that I entered.  It's rare to have a win, any time, any day, any title. The odds are against you and you go into one not foreseeing the future as a state titleholder but merely as a hopeful that could do the job. For me, I made history winning the national title of Miss Teen USA that fateful August night in 2001. What came after I could have never imagined or dreamed about. New York City may have been another country or planet from Missouri at that time. Working for Donald Trump, meeting people I had seen in films and being someone that people listened to and cheered for was the stuff of impossible dreams. But from that one entry form in 2000 brought it all to the land of possibilities. I just wish the idea of what a pageant truly is was a bit more realistic.