Pageant Day 2

Day 2

Usually involves me getting up at 6:30am. I shower, I eat, and I make sure I have everything I need for the day. (which includes everything for prelims that night, sweatshirt, water bottle, and snacks)

Rehearsals tend to start around 8. We get there and the same motivational "Do your best, have fun, you're amazing...blah, blah..." speech is said. It is said for good reasons. There will only be two girls crowned the next day; Miss Iowa USA and Miss Iowa Teen USA. So the directors always want to make sure the girls know that they are wonderful, beautiful, smart, well-rounded women. Every year there is a different judge and every year there will be different results.

Here is an example of what I wear and what a few other girls wore to rehearsals (sometimes I dress up, sometimes I wear sweats, and sometimes I wear jeans and a t-shirt; it all depends on what we are doing that day):

After the speech we rehearse. We are shown what the swimsuit pattern is and then we each practice it. This takes a long time as there are usually about a hundred or more girls. We then do the same thing for evening gown. After we have practiced evening gown we go to lunch.

After lunch we go quickly over what to do if you make top 10 and top 5. We also practice on stage interview very briefly. We do this briefly because being called into the top 10 and 5 and having your on stage question doesn't happen until the final night.

We go over swimsuit and evening gown once more. We go over introduction. Introductions in the USA system are very easy. You say your name, hometown, and how old you are. For example: Dakota Crosswhite, 21, Cedar Rapids.


We also learn an opening number production. This varies; it can do from a full out dance to just walking across the stage a few times in different patterns so everyone can see you.

You are not judged on opening number. You are judged on Interview, Swimsuit, Evening gown and if you are in top 5 your onstage question.


After we practice all of this the day is pretty much over. We are invited to eat lunch (usually pasta, walking tacos, pizza, and things of that sort) and get ready for prelims which usually start around 6:30. This part of the pageant will last a couple of hours. After prelims we go to the hotel and go straight to bed. We are all pretty tired at this point and we have another early day ahead of us.