How I Got Started In Pageants

When I started liking boys, I would make up boyfriends. I would lie and tell people at Daycare I was dating this boy from my school (even though I wasn't), just because I liked them and none of the kids at my daycare when to the same school as me. I would have to lie, because when I was in elementary school none of the boys liked me. I was one of the guys. I liked them but they never liked me as anyone more than to play soccer with or race or 4 square or any other sport. I wasn't one of the pretty girls.


In second grade I was helping my grandpa with the recycling. This was back when you brought all of your recyclables to the local grocery store (in our case it was Hy Vee) and sorted them out yourself. I was carrying a box full of cardboard or whatever my grandpa was making me carry and one of the guys that worked at the store said, "Let me help you with that son." This was the last straw! I had been called a boy before, and it never really bothered me until this point. After this incident I decided to grow out my hair. But that still didn't help, guys still thought of me as one of the guys. I began to wear girly things: skirts, jewelry, I even wore a pearl barrette in my hair. Still nothing was working

When I hit middle school everyone had a boyfriend. I would date guys, but only for a week at a time. These boys didn't like me. They just dated me so they could tell their friends they had a girlfriend. All of their friends made fun of them for dating me because I was weird, I had a gap in my front teeth, I was a guy, I hadn't developed like the "cool" girls in our grade...I heard so many excuses as to why guys wouldn't be my boyfriend. In 7th grade I decided I wanted to model. I thought that maybe it would help me become pretty. So Mom and I found an Ad in the paper for Barbizon modeling school. I enrolled and learned how to do make-up and hair, walk in heels, and how to pose for pictures. After this experience I was invited to go to IMTA, a modeling competition out in New York. By this time I was a sophomore in High school. I loved it!!! I took acting classes and had my first photo shoot (the picture on the right is from my first photo shoot). But one thing always bugged me. I was too short to do runway. In New York I placed 1st for my Soap Opera competition and 4th runner up for my close up (out of 500+ girls in my age division). I was so excited! Even though I did well in acting I remember looking at the girls doing runway and wanted so much to be a part of that. So what did I do? I found what I THOUGHT would be the closest thing to runway... PAGEANTS!

When I was a wee little thing

When I was young, I was a tomboy. I hated dressing up, I hated playing with girls, I hated the color pink, I hated pretty much anything any normal young girl would love. I was the little girl with the bowl cut, whose mom made her wear certian clothes that made me look like a girl. The only thing I was able to choose when it came to my wardrobe were my shoes...a nasty old stinky pair of tennis shoes with holes. Note the tennis shoes and bowl cut...the dress with puppies on it???!!! Definitely not my choice...ehhhemmm mom ;)

I was friends with all of the guys at my school. Except there was this one boy, whom I went to daycare with, Bradley, and I abosolutely hated him. I would always tell him I would beat him up and we rough housed like boys would.

I was always the child that caused trouble in my family. I would be out riding my bike and getting into mischief. I was the child that all of my family, family friends, babysitters and anyone else who knew me; thought would be the one to drop out of highschool. After all not only was I a tomboy but a rebel. I never listened in school and was sent to the principals office almost everyday up until 2nd grade. Man was I a handful.


Some examples I did as a child:

Examples #1: When I was 2 almost 3 my family moved into our current house. They built a fence in our backyard to keep us (by us I mean mostly me) in the yard. The first day we moved into our house, I climbed the fence and ran up the hill. What a waste of money. Poor parents.

Example #2: Bradley (the kid that I hated) asked "want me to steal your teddy bear" and I responded (in preschool) "want me to kick your A**?"
Example #3: When sent to the principals office in kindergarten for not behaving. I instead decided it would be fun to hide in the girls bathroom under a table. The school almost had to call the police because they couldn't find me and thought I ran away.

Example #4: When my teacher had a sudent teacher from cornell, I stood up and yelled cornell sucks and coe rules and then proceeded to tell the student teacher I didn't have to listen to her because she went to cornell. (by the way, my grandpa was the athletics director, an economics professor, and head of the economics department at coe. I only got introuble with my grandma, because grandpa was actually proud of me and told the whole football team what I did.)

Example #5: When fighting with my sisters I would do something to them and tell my parents they actually did it to me, so that they would get in trouble.

I suppose that is enough examples for now, as I will continue to give examples of my transistion into pageants and adulthood.