Miss America Misconceptions

Last Sunday on September 14th, a new Miss America was crowned on ABC. For a pageant girl like me, this was like Superbowl Sunday. I was on the edge of my seat cheering on my favorite state queens (Go Miss Iowa Aly Olsen!), seeing if my predications of who would win were correct, and drooling over every girl’s evening gown wishing it was in my closet. But I do know not everyone was as excited as I was for this competition. It’s disheartening to see so many misconceptions about pageantry and girls who compete in pageants. Stereotypes are thrown all over the place about what a pageant girl acts like. As a woman who competes and devotes her time into pageantry, I can tell you for a fact that all of the misconceptions of pageantry are false.

Most of the time when you think of a pageant girl you immediately think blonde, blue eyed, and skinny. People often relate to pageant girls as those who are in the show “Toddlers and Tiaras” and constantly get spray tans, have fake teeth, and cause drama. I like to point out that there are two very different kinds of pageants in the pageant world. I like to separate them into glitz and well, pageants. Glitz pageants are solely based on outer beauty. These pageants are the pageants you see in “Toddlers and Tiaras” where moms dictate their daughters and spend tons of money on unnecessary beauty products. These types of pageants don’t represent who pageant girls truly are and the popular show "Toddlers and Tiaras" is not my defiantly not my definition of a pageant girl.

Then there are pageants that promote inner beauty, poise, and intelligence of women. Pageants like these are like the Miss America Organization that just recently aired on television last Sunday. The Miss America Organization isn’t just a pageant; it’s actually a scholarship organization for young women. Last year they awarded $45 million in scholarships for young women, making it the largest provider of scholarships for women in America! This pageant includes 5 main areas of competition, Evening Wear, Interview, Talent, Swimsuit/Lifestyle and Fitness, and Platform. Each contestant must participate in a 10 minute one on one interview with the judges and this counts for 30% of their total score. And these questions aren't just "What's your favorite color?", it's real life issues we are facing in America today regarding Isis, domestic violence, gay marriage equality, and so much more. The next 30% is based off of talent. These women can perform anything from dancing, singing, ventriloquism, to even doing the "cup song" while singing "Happy" like Miss New York did this year. The next 15% goes to evening wear and another 15% goes to swimsuit. While the girls do have to walk down the stage in a swimsuit, you can see that the total percentage of the swimsuit score is not as big as talent or interview. When judges are judging swimsuit and evening wear they aren't looking for the girl with the skinniest body or the girl who has the best dress or suit, they are looking for those who are healthy, fit, elegant, and confident in who they are as a person. The final 10% of their score is based off of their platform. A platform is an organization that the girls are a part of and they try to promote that while being a title holder, if its local, state, or national. My platform is "Diversity Advocacy: Embracing the Unique in Everybody" where I try to promote diversity and inclusion in our community. Each girl will be asked several questions and must write and essay about their platform and why they chose it and what they have done to promote it. As you can tell, this isn't just a walk on stage in a pretty dress competition; the Miss America pageant requires so much preparation not only on prepping for competition, but also just devoting time to community service projects and promoting your platform.

If you didn't watch Miss America on Sunday, you missed out. The women on that stage proved that pageant girls are talented, intellectual, funny, beautiful, and everything in between. A huge congratulation to our new Miss America, Kira Kazantsev (Miss New York) She nailed her onstage question, her talent was entertaining and fun, and she was just a joy to watch onstage. I cannot wait for what she has in store as Miss America! Also, big congratulations to our Miss Iowa Aly Olsen for placing in top 12! She was stunning onstage and I only wished we all could've heard her talent because I know it would've been killer. Congratulations ladies!

While pageant stereotypes will always be around, I hope more and more people can be influenced by the power of the Miss America Organization and how much it gives back to our young ladies today. This organization doesn't create the reality TV stars on MTV, this pageant creates the next leaders, CEO's, lawyers, and doctors of our nation. Miss America isn't just a pageant; it's an opportunity of a lifetime.

New York Fashion Week 2014

 The lights are set, the runway is clear, the audience is ready for one of the biggest events in fashion society. New York Fashion Week 2014 (Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week New York) kicked off on September 4^th showing off the new fall/winter line from all the name brand designers you can think of. This event featured new designs from Calvin Kline, BCBG Maxaria, Rebecca Minkoff, DKNY, J Crew, Tory Burch, Michael Kors, Betsey Johnson, and so much more. This event draws in hundreds of people and designers to get a first hand look at the new fall and winter items and what’s going to be in style for the next season. The Mercedes-Benz Fashion week is only the first stop of this international fashion event; big cities like Berlin, Istanbul, Australia, and Russia will have their fashion week soon after.

Fashion week was first organized in 1943, this event was intended to attract attention away from French Fashion Shows in Paris due to many Americans not being able to travel to Paris during World War II. A Fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert organized an event called Press Week that showcased American designers for fashion journalists; it quickly became very popular and now is one of the biggest events in the fashion society. Today New York Fashion Week is not only showcasing a weeks worth of brand name designers to the people who are at the runway, but also making a livestream video of the show to allow everyone to get a peek at what’s happening in New York Fashion Week.

This year, many new styles and trends popped up in these designers. The 3 main trends I see is Midi Skirts with a crop top, slit skirts, and structured men’s wear (Blazers, pant suits, etc.) These trends were prevalent in many of the designers clothing line. Kendall Jenner proved to be one of the most talked about models at New York Fashion Week. Her presence was everywhere during the week, whether it was modeling for all different kinds of designers, making a red carpet appearance, or just posting Instagram pictures; she made a statement during New York Fashion Week.

This year, New York Fashion was a definite success. Let’s hope one day instead of blogging about New York Fashion Week, I’ll be able to sit on the sidelines of the runway and watch it!