A year ago launched a partnership with the Brandywine School District housed at Mount Pleasant High School and its radio station 91.7 WMPH, Our youth media producer Anne Hoffman has been working with students there this school year, helping them learn how to tell their stories in our multimedia world-- and we now have the first fruits of their efforts.
To showcase them, we’ve launched a website –GenerationVoice– which went live last week. Over the next few weeks on The Green, we'll offer samples of what you’ll find there.This first one takes us into the world of beauty pageants - a rite of passage for some girls – but an outdated concept to many observers. Viewership of the Miss America pageant has dropped in recent years, while YouTube videos of contestants mistakes in pageant Q and A sections are on the rise. But Generation Voice student Cierra Smith argues pageants can be empowering for women and girls. The former Miss Delaware Teen USA contestant says the real power of the pageant lies in the sisterhood it helps create:
We all know the stereotype, beauty pageant contestants as Godzillas. We’ve seen it in that show "Toddlers and Tiaras."
And the heat of the competition can make you a little crazy. I would know, I got to witness it with my own eyes.
Back in November I tried out to become Miss Delaware Teen USA 2015.
Pageants can feel like another world. It’s like living life as a princess for two weeks. Before the pageant, you spend sleepless nights thinking about how you’ll do your hair and how it’ll feel to be up on stage. You and your mom spend lots and lots of money to find the perfect dresses. And you have to research tips and tricks by watching YouTube videos of girls who won.
Going in, I was more into the experience than winning the title. I mean it’s just a crown, right? But, to be honest, that didn’t last. I started to want to win. I saw that prop can show the world how confident and poised you are. And it definitely brings the winner some power.
You also think that you have to study all 100 questions that you are given by the pageant organization and perfect your answers, but you really only need to put your skills to the test if you’re lucky enough to make it to the top.
Here’s one I practiced and hated; If you could place 3 items into a time capsule to represent women today what would they be and why? Not all women are the same so how could there be 3 items to tell the world what we’re ALL like? And who am I to judge other women by making objects represent them? That was kinda weird to me and left me stuck. After awhile I just gave up in hopes that I wouldn’t be asked that question.
You’d think that everything in the pageant would be as stressful as that one question, that there would be a lot of pressure. But the truth is we all work together to help uplift one another physically and emotionally. It’s much like a sisterhood, but with a lot of pink glitter, hair rollers, and overly dramatic dresses. Though I admit - there are some girls who take it way too seriously.
Like, I knew this one girl and it seemed like her entire sense of self-worth was hanging on that crown. She would bother me every moment before we went out onto the stage, making sure I touched up her makeup and twirl her curls with my finger. At one point she looked at another girl and asked me “Do you think she’s better than me”?
Some girls can be so insecure.
But here’s how most girls were. They were bubbly, excited, and just along for the ride.
I will never forget how kind everyone was to each other. Literally, almost breaking their necks, to go out of their way helping one another. When dance rehearsals weren’t in session, we’d go over the routine and make sure we all understood the steps and perfected them.
And there were a lot of times, every day, when girls would be switching makeup and hair appointments to fit the needs of someone else’s schedule. Whether it was sharing makeup to hair spray to buttglue, I ended up feeling like when you scratch the surface, the “Pageant world” is really a sisterhood.
In the end, I didn’t win. But I didn’t go home crying, either . My uncle Corey came all the way from Virginia to see me compete. And even though I only had four people there and some girls had whole sections, my family still made the same amount of noise.
Overall, it was worth it. And what I’m really saying is, it was worth spending lots of money on dresses, wearing the pinchy shoes, and spending late nights agonizing over those questions all over again. Because all that hard work brought me somewhere different than where I started off. I’m more confident now, know more about the things that are important to me. I want to start my own non-profit, and I’m definitely planning to find new ways to give back to my community.
Would I do it again? Come root for me in 2017.