“She is beauty and she is grace, she is the queen of 50 states, she is elegance and taste, she is Miss United States (Lawrence).” This song, from the soundtrack of the movie Miss Congeniality, describes amazing women who have been crowned Miss United States. While outside of this movie, in the real world, we do not have Miss United States; we do have other titles similar. Beauty pageants encourage their participants to be the best versions of themselves they can be through building the contestants’ confidence, giving them an unparalleled experience and supporting them to pursue higher education. Beauty pageants give their contestants confidence. It is like any other accomplishment to win a beauty pageant and be recognized by an organization.
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For example, being Miss America is honor only one lady has been able to hold each year since the 1920’s, meaning less than 100 women have held this title (Riverol 23). In the forward of her book A.R. Riverol describes the atmosphere surrounding pageant week for Miss America in Atlantic City. She talks of the excitement of people coming to the city just for the chance to bump into one of the contestants, or all of the, as she labels “wannabees,” in their “store-bought pageant titles (Riverol v). Numerous citizens of the United States tune in to watch the pageant in September along with the people who travel to or live in Atlantic City. All of these people are trying to get a slice of this one of a kind experience. In her book, “Being Miss America,” Kate Shindle reflects on her time as Miss America 1998. Shindle talks about flying first class, which happened frequently since she traveled about 20,000 miles a month, being on various TV shows, and getting her clothes from designer showrooms (Shindle …show more content…
While in childhood pageants this often a cash prize, for the teen and adult pageant queens it is a scholarship. Many of these beauty pageants are actually considered scholarship programs to promote higher education for the ladies who are involved. For example, the winner of Miss America 2013 won over $50,000 to go towards her education in the Miss America pageant alone (“Scholarship Pageants”). This does not include the totals she received in the pageants she competed in to qualify for the Miss America competition. This funding of higher education is not left alone to the teenage and adult competitors, but child beauty pageant winners as well. In her article, Pageant Princesses and Math Whizzes, Hilary Levey talks of a young girl who in the matter of weeks won $40,000 in pageant winnings. Levey continues by explaining how one pageant mother she interviewed puts the prize money into a bank account to be used later for college. Another common trend with prize money is to reinvest it in pageants while still saving some for college. Levey interviewed one pageant mom who saved 20% of her daughter’s winnings for college and spent the remaining to allow her daughter compete in larger pageants with a higher cash prize (Levey 205).
Beauty pageants are an excellent way for their contestants to be the best version of themselves. They allow the contestant to stand up
For example, being Miss America is honor only one lady has been able to hold each year since the 1920’s, meaning less than 100 women have held this title (Riverol 23). In the forward of her book A.R. Riverol describes the atmosphere surrounding pageant week for Miss America in Atlantic City. She talks of the excitement of people coming to the city just for the chance to bump into one of the contestants, or all of the, as she labels “wannabees,” in their “store-bought pageant titles (Riverol v). Numerous citizens of the United States tune in to watch the pageant in September along with the people who travel to or live in Atlantic City. All of these people are trying to get a slice of this one of a kind experience. In her book, “Being Miss America,” Kate Shindle reflects on her time as Miss America 1998. Shindle talks about flying first class, which happened frequently since she traveled about 20,000 miles a month, being on various TV shows, and getting her clothes from designer showrooms (Shindle …show more content…
While in childhood pageants this often a cash prize, for the teen and adult pageant queens it is a scholarship. Many of these beauty pageants are actually considered scholarship programs to promote higher education for the ladies who are involved. For example, the winner of Miss America 2013 won over $50,000 to go towards her education in the Miss America pageant alone (“Scholarship Pageants”). This does not include the totals she received in the pageants she competed in to qualify for the Miss America competition. This funding of higher education is not left alone to the teenage and adult competitors, but child beauty pageant winners as well. In her article, Pageant Princesses and Math Whizzes, Hilary Levey talks of a young girl who in the matter of weeks won $40,000 in pageant winnings. Levey continues by explaining how one pageant mother she interviewed puts the prize money into a bank account to be used later for college. Another common trend with prize money is to reinvest it in pageants while still saving some for college. Levey interviewed one pageant mom who saved 20% of her daughter’s winnings for college and spent the remaining to allow her daughter compete in larger pageants with a higher cash prize (Levey 205).
Beauty pageants are an excellent way for their contestants to be the best version of themselves. They allow the contestant to stand up