» Miss North Florida Teen USA Audience Report

Debonair Productions presented this year’s Miss North Florida Teen USA Super Pageant in Jacksonville. The second to last stop on The 2006 Road To Hollywood featured ten delegates competing for three titles and the chance to be “Debonair Divas”. It was so good to see such enthusiasm, as it is now time to focus on the teen division in Florida.

The Miss Florida Teen USA representatives are in the house!

Ms. Simon and Ms. Leaf share a photo op (left) & Ms. Simon and Ms. Pelham pose with

proud mothers Mrs. Pelham and Mrs. Lareau in the lobby before the competition (right)

The Debonair Divas backstage before the pageant.

It was also exciting to see so many titleholders participating in the pageant. All of our preliminary winners were interviewed for the audience. Miss First Coast USA Amy Ferguson; Miss First Coast Teen USA Ashley Lake Miss First Cost Teen USA; Miss Seminole County USA 2006 Britton Simon; Miss Seminole County Teen USA 2006 Savannah Stephens; Miss Space Coast USA Tasheia Pelham; Miss Space Coast Teen USA Maddie Lareau and Miss Clearwater Teen USA Tess Wilensky were in attendance. Lets take a look at some of the pictures!

» Quest for the crown in Southeast Missouri

Story & Photos ~ By JACKIE HARDER

Ah ... the smell of hairspray and bronzing powder. It must be pageant season. For Southeast Missouri's serial beauty queens, making the rounds on the local pageant circuit can consume a girl's summer vacation and deplete a mother's savings. There's Miss Black River Festival, Miss Dynamite, Miss Sweat Pea, Miss Watermelon Festival, and Miss Butler County -- to name a few. And then the fall festivals begin, followed by Christmas and Valentine's Day pageants. But ask anyone who participates in pageants religiously, they'll tell you it's worth it. It's worth spending hundreds of dollars on dresses, entry fees and motel rooms. It's worth putting sticky-glue on their rear ends to keep their bathing suits from crawling when they walk across the stage. It's worth rubbing Vaseline over their teeth for an especially gleaming smile and hemorrhoid cream on their thighs to prevent jiggling. It's worth the anxiety and it's worth the disappointments.

"I've been doing pageants since I was 8 months old," said 15-year-old Amanda Wallace, of Poplar Bluff. "I probably do about 10 to 15 a year. I love it. I love the feeling of being on stage." Wallace was among those craving the 2005 Miss Black River Festival crown. She and her partner-in-pageants, Venessa Tanksley, agreed they wouldn't miss their hometown pageant for the world. "This pageant has an interview competition and I like that," 17-year-old Tanksley said. "The judges ask questions about me. It's not just how I look in a swimsuit." Serving as a mentor and inspiration to Tanksley and Wallace was last year's Junior Miss Black River Festival, Rachel Woolard of Naylor. From the Poplar Bluff pageant, Woolard went on to take the Miss Missouri Teen USA title. Next month, she'll represent the Show Me State in the 2005 Miss Teen USA pageant. "I've been doing pageants since I was 4. I always did the local pageants, what I call the produce pageants, the watermelon festivals and the peach fairs," she said, grinning. "I've met a lot of good people doing pageants. Of course, there are some rotten apples in the barrel every now and then. But you just deal with them and move on. It's training for life."

Of course it's not just the older girls who can get caught up in pageants this time of year. With divisions as young as 0-6 months, many moms are more than happy to carry their babes across the stage for the judges and world to see how beautiful and well-behaved they are. As the girls get a little older, many parents send them to a pageant trainer, someone to show the proper way to walk, smile and catch a judge's eye. "For some reason, it's easier for a little girl to listen to someone else than it is to listen to their mother," explained Melissa Shepard, a mother of three up-and-coming beauty queens and one boy who could care less about such things. Shepard guesses she spends about $2,000 a year on entry fees alone -- typical for those in the pageant circuit. However, with three daughters, Shepard is able to make the most out of her pageant dollars. Even though dresses cost a small fortune, she actually only has to buy new dresses for her eldest daughter, 6-year-old Hannah and then alter the dresses to fit the other two. By the time a dress makes it through the ranks; from Hannah to Gracie, 3, and to Danielle, 23 months, it's completely worn out. While Shepard loves the mother-daughter bonding that comes from doing pageants with her girls, Gracie and Hannah say they love it for one thing: the stage. They love performing. They love dressing up, wearing makeup, singing, dancing and strutting. If they are wearing formals, they do their "princess walk," quiet and still, arms out and barely touching their dress. When in casual wear, they do their "prissy walk," swaying back and forth. And when it's all said and done, they get to ride in parades throughout the year.

Pageants, according to their mother, teach her girls about failure, as well as success. "Hannah gets her feelings hurt sometimes and she has cried before," Shepard said. When asked if she remembers feeling sad after a pageant, Hannah downed her eyes and nodded. "In St. Louis," Hannah said. What did your mommy tell you? "That I did good anyway," Hannah muttered. "That's right. You did good anyway," Shepard said firmly. Hannah is hardly alone in grieving the loss of a queen-sized crown. Even seasoned pros like Woolard have been in those shoes, or footwear as pageant-minded people say. "Of course you're disappointed. I mean, if you aren't disappointed, then you're in it for the wrong reasons. Plus, you just spent a lot of money. Your mom may be mad if you spent all that and didn't care about winning," she explained. "It's disappointing but you've got to know it's not the end of the world. There will always be another pageant."

And there will probably be one after that. Then the fall festivals begin.

» Design a gown for the NZ Miss World Pageant!

Hello! A callout to all young designers in New Zealand and especially around the Waikato region, to design me a dress for Miss World. My name is Racquel Standen. I am currently a Year 13 student at Forest View High School in Tokoroa. This year I am participating in the Miss World New Zealand Pageant at Sky City in Auckland. Within this pageant is a fashion design category where we model a designer outfit made by someone of our choice. This outfit maybe also modeled at other events to raise money for charities. A trophy will be awarded for the best designed outfit, plus the prestige and publicity and of course the fun and experience of having your designs on television and perhaps around the world! It can be of any design and materials but not too outrageous and of course I am looking for something that would flatter my figure and suit my personality and help me stand out from the others.

If you know of anyone who is passionate about design and would like to create an outfit for me to wear at this event, I would like to hear from them. Please contact me by email at: karen.standen@xtra.co.nz

»Pageant News Wanted!

Are you a titleholder or at large delegate who is making appearances or doing good things in the community? We would love to tell all of the Miss Florida USA Family your story. Send pictures and updates to telair@aol.com as we feature everything Miss Florida USA on Friday’s at Faces & Places.

»Alumni News Wanted!

If you know of any Miss Florida USA alumni in the news please drop us an email to feature them in future articles. Email all info to info@missfloridausa.com! Until next week here to good pageantry!

PICTURE OF THE WEEK!

This week's choice was simple, our beautiful Miss Florida Teen USA Victoria Ratliff

onstage at Miss Teen USA looking regal in her evening gown.

A NOTE FROM OUR SPONSORS:

HEY GIRLS! ARE YOU A HILLARY DUFF FAN?

ARE YOU LOADED WITH ACTING, SINGING OR DANCING TALENT?

This week the John Robert Powers school system is hosting auditions with Hollywood Casting Director, Kim Bennink.

Kim helped cast the hit movie Raise Your Voice with Hillary Duff and has cast for TV shows like That’s So Raven and Even Stevens.

TAKE THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS BEING ON SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE TV SHOWS

AND SCHEDULE YOUR AUDITION APPOINTMENT TODAY!

Call 305-755-9901 and ask for Emily

http://www.johnrobertpowers.com