South Carolina Teen USA

By now, almost everyone has seen the video of the final question at Miss Teen USA where a flustered South Carolina struggled to answer a question about why people in this country can't identify the U.S. on a map. When I first heard this question on the live telecast, I thought 'wow, how would I answer that?' largely because the question is so shocking. Do 1/5 of Americans really now know where their own country is? I remember when I took geography in high school the number one test that was failed was about the fifty states and their capitals. More people passed the other tests.


My thoughts are that it's unfortunate that she got so flustered and that it was on national television. I can't believe she got a place higher than WV, although maybe the final question doesn't count for as much as I thought it did!

What's also interesting is that a lot of girls who compete in USA are interested in acting and modeling and what better way to get your face out there? More people will remember SC Teen USA than the winner of the overrall pageant.

I admired her for coming on a news show recently to talk about what happened, but I didn't like that Matt Lauer and the other reporter asked her the same question again. What pageant contestant doesn't wish she got three days to mull and do-over her onstage question? The point of onstage question is to see how girls handle situations when they don't know what question is coming?

Anyways, best of luck to the new Miss Teen USA!

Congrats Caitlin!

I've been absolutely swamped both in my work and my personal life and I just haven't had time to blog. As i am writing I am officially moved into my dorm room, with a key, and my car is being fixed. At some later point, I will write about the awful tale that is my story of the last week. I met a girl named Emelina who is good friends with a lot of my friends who stayed on campus last year when I was in England, and she said 'You should make that into a movie'.
Needless to say my getting to Virginia was awful, and certainly the most stressful we have ever had. I can't believe we made it alive (my car did not).

I've been meaning to post this for some time, but congrats to Caitlin Brunell for winning Miss America's Outstanding Teen. I first met Caitlin the weekend we competed for Miss Virginia American Coed (I in Teen and her in preteen) where Caitlin won the preteen title at Virginia and at nationals. I just gave up my American Coed title last weekend (yet another blog entry I'm behind on!) so it's very cool to see American Coed girls going on to achieve great things.


Caitlin is a real sweetheart and you can tell she truly loves to dance. I hope she brings MAOT the limelight that it needs to beef up the program!

An update

I've really been meaning to write a blog entry, but I just haven't had time!

I have been so incredibly busy working, getting ready for this weekends pageant, packing all of my belongings to begin school in Virginia, and just keeping on top of things that I haven't had time to make several entries that I've wanted to.

Hang with me until Wednesday, when my schedule calms down a little bit! Until then I am tired and fully booked!

American Coed

This next weekend, I will up up the Miss Ohio title in the Coed age division for American Coed pageants. American Coed pageants has been an incredible organization- I began competing on a dare at age 16, and have grown so much through my experience with ACP. It's hard to believe that I even won a title; years of competing and hard work finally paid off.

It will be so bizarre next weekend to be the one doing all the reigning queen duties: presenting awards, leading the production number, wearing a crown and banner and posing for pictures all weekend, performing my talent not for scoring purposes, and in general not competing. This next week of my life will be crazy because I have to drive my car to Virginia the Monday after American Coed finishes, so I'm trying to tie up all my loose ends here before leaving Ohio for a few months.

I'll update about American Coed most likely once I am settled into Virginia. I am moving in early so that I can prepare for work and just get settled. I will be living in Webb, our senior dorm, on a hall with many of my close friends, and I am very excited about this.


For now I just wanted to encourage anyone who was interested in the Columbus area to visit the Crowne Plaza Columbus North August 17-19 for the Ohio American Coed pageant because this is truly a great pageant system and it's so fun to watch.

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog! As much as I loved my old address, people searching for information about Boston kept finding it and I'm sure I confused them. That blog focused on my life in Boston as well as my year in England, but now that I'm going in a different direction, I'd like a new blog!

I hope this blog will focus on my journey in the Miss America organization, in which I am currently competing on the local level, as well as my community service and my political perspective. Being the political junkie that I am, I love debate and learning about new developments and sharing them with others. Hence the partly borrowed title from my old blog of 'Pageants and Politics'.