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!