We didn't do cotillions or anything. My family made fun of the pageants.
It's just so funny that when I was growing up, I was very much of an Australian. I just thought it was funny that there was this war, like, 'No, she's ours, she's practically a Miss Australia.' But I am a Miss Philippines.
So many people look up to pageants, including young girls and young boys. The message that I would hate to send to them is that you're only deemed worthy of a title or worthy of recognition or of success if you fit in a certain number.
I have a lot of friends that are ex-Miss Alabamas and ex-Miss Georgias.
I'm constantly trying to redefine what being a beauty queen is.
I'm probably not going to shed all the pageant girl, because that's who I am. If you don't like it, that's too damn bad.
I felt like I was not a cute kid, and I remember seeing people transform. It was actually when my sister was in the beauty pageants and I was in some pageants. I didn't win any. I always got that like, participant trophy, but I fell in love with the way makeup could transform people.
I must be very clear in one thing... Being a pageant girl is not who I am or what defines me.
I think the pageant system is about empowering women. I think that aspect of it is great, but when you take parents who are forcing their children to do anything, I don't think it's healthy.
Coming from a pageant title that celebrates diversity, I've come to appreciate all kinds of beauty.
This is a strange country we live in. When it comes to electing a President, we get two choices. But when we have to select a Miss America, we get 50.
Being a pageant girl taught me to be polished, poised and slap on a smile.
The Miss America Pageant reinforces a belief that women are merely how they look and how they please.
I used to go missing a lot... Miss Canada, Miss United Kingdom, Miss World.
I kind of like to think of myself as the bad girl Olympian that would get kicked out of the Miss America pageant.
There's something about winning Miss America that brings out the snark.
Chin held high, Miss Ohio beamed at an imagined crowd. "I want to be a motivational speaker." "What are you going to motivate people to do?" Smile still in place, she cut her eyes at Adina. "You know. Motivational ... stuff.
I grew up in Tennessee, where no one was really hairy, and with sisters who were so beautiful - my little sister was a pageant girl. But me, I was this weird-looking hairy child. I had more than just a unibrow; I feel like I had a mustache, a goatee.
I think pageant girls just have a way of faking it until you make it, almost.
I'm a pageant girl from Texas, so I like makeup and hairspray. And the smoky eye? I think I was born with it!
