Not Your Average Pageant
June 20, 2010 • By Christian Mills, Staff Reporter
Filed under Opinion, Top Stories
The power of the media.
The media has a big effect on the way people view things. Often times, the way things are portrayed in the media is not the way they are in reality. I realized this at my Nationals’ Miss Teen Wilmington Pageant training class.
Going into the training class, I was not sure of what to expect. I was not nervous nor did I feel uncomfortable. I was just unsure of what to expect of the other contestants and how the pageant would be run.
Although I was unsure, I was hoping it wouldn’t be like the pageant shows on television. The girls on those shows are really glamorous and competitive, and they have condescending attitudes. One has to understand that this was my first pageant, so all I knew about pageants was the information gained from television and from stories that I had heard.
Lucky for me, the experience I had that night was nothing like I had seen on television or the stories I had heard.
Throughout the night, we shook the other contestants’ hands, learned each other’s names, and talked about the schools we attended. We did not do this because it was forced, but we did it because we wanted to. It did not feel odd when we helped each other learn the positions we needed to stand in or the modeling routine.
I was surprised by the level of relaxation in the room. Although this was my first pageant, I now feel that every pageant should be like this. During the class it seemed as if we were all on one team, not individual competitors.
This pageant was meant to judge our personalities and how we portray them. I must point out that there was no swimsuit or talent portion. The ability to sing or have the perfect swimsuit body may contribute to, but does not represent, one’s overall personality.
With all of that said, I am very excited to be a contestant in the Nationals’ Miss Teen Wilmington Pageant. I am grateful for the experience and hope that other pageants will look to Nationals’ as they set an honorable example of a beneficial pageant experience.
And I am glad the media had me fooled.
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