Miss Teen Detroit Pageant

Photo by Alison Vaughn

 I was one of the judges for the Miss Teen Detroit pageant this past weekend.

The event spanned over two days, with personal interviews on Saturday and the pageant on Sunday.

After interviewing 99 young women, I can somewhat understand how Simon, Paula and Randy [American Idol] feel as they are faced with a new contestant every 5 minutes all day long. As sweet as most of these girls were and as entertaining as some of the responses had been (singing, dancing and joke telling sprinkled throughout the day), listening to ‘what I want to be when I grow up’ is exhausting!

So many of these young women answered that the reason they were in this pageant is to ‘gain self confidence.’ At first thought, that may seem like a cliche; dressing up, strutting on stage and competing against other women...isn’t the first way you may think to build self confidence. To most, this probably sounds more like a breeding ground for cat fights instead of increasing your self-esteem. But you know what? These girls had fun...and I actually saw some of the shy ones ‘open-up.’

Another pleasant surprise was the variety of contestants. There was a wide range of ethnicities and backgrounds. The only characteristic that so many of them shared was that they wanted to emulate Tyra Banks and Taylor Swift.

The pageant itself had an additional spin to it-Casual Wear. While the usual Evening Wear category was there too, Casual Wear was meant as a way for the girls to show their personality. This is the part I liked best because you could really tell which ones were fun/funny/creative. We saw everything from hula skirts and soccer uniforms to mixing bowls and spatulas.

In addition to the glitter and gowns, there was also training behind it. Leading up to the big day, contestants attended classes that taught and perfected their modeling walk and interviewing skills (eye contact, hand shaking, loosing the ‘um’ or ‘like’ when speaking) etc. These aren’t pageant practices, these are things people need in real life; which makes me feel that the Miss Teen pageants are a step in the right direction to set young women on the right track...and let them have fun at the same time.

I will leave you with my favorite answer of the night. When a seven year old girl in the Junior Division was asked “What do you want to be when you grow up?” She confidently yelled into the microphone, “A Vegetarian!” The audience cheerfully laughed, even though she misspoke, most understood that she wanted to work with animals...and not refrain from eating them.