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Beauty pageants are a long-standing tradition in the towns of NS, and they all have different ways of acquiring their royalty. Whether it be an essay contest or a scholarship pageant, it takes effort to choose who to represent their community.
Sanpete County holds a pageant for girls in Sanpete who want to participate, but they had to be a queen of a town in the past to join. This is for the title of Miss Sanpete County. There is also a separate age group that is younger who is Miss Sanpete County’s Outstanding teen. They serve the entire county throughout their reign. The last Sanpete County pageant was held this past August.
On a town level, Fairview is the closest pageant coming up. It will be held on Feb. 26. The girls competing have been practicing twice a week for the past few weeks—getting ready to put on a show. Fairview has been doing the traditional scholarship pageants. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Fairview didn’t hold a pageant this last year. They have had the same queen, Emily Kerksiek, for the past two years.
“I feel like sometimes pageants have a little bit of a negative reputation of people thinking, ‘Oh it’s just a beauty pageant.’ Which they are not beauty pageants they are scholarship pageants,” said Kristin Grasteit, the Fairview pageant director for 12 years now. “Once they are crowned and the royalty, it becomes a job.”
Fairview also includes a platform in their pageant process. A platform is something that the contestant is passionate about and finds ways to help the community on that topic.
“If she chooses something her heart is in then she will be able to use the platform for good in her community,” Grasteit said.
These pageants have many areas where the contestants have to present themselves in, and it can be a lot of work to do a pageant.
“After doing it all these years the thing that has become the hardest for me is when you work with these girls for about two months and you really grow to care about them and you know that only three can walk away with a crown,” Grasteit said. “The hard part for me is not letting all the girls win something, because you learn to care about them and see all of them put in the effort and time.”
A few stereotypes around pageants is that it is like modeling and they are only for pretty skinny girls, which is not the case.
“I don’t think there is anything wrong with teaching a girl how to carry herself with confidence, to pull her shoulders back and to carry herself appropriately, so I think that it’s also a good skill to learn and for girls to be taught,” Grasteit said.
Some of the categories in pageants are interview, talent, formal wear, casual wear, and onstage question. These categories vary upon the pageant, and the way they are weighted.
“It is a difficult thing because you have to walk the right way, you have to talk a certain way, you have to stand there all pretty,” said Brexann Belt, a sophomore at NS. “[Pageants] are a lot of effort.”
Mt. Pleasant City also does a scholarship pageant with a platform. They are expecting to hold their next pageant in April. Last year Mt. Pleasant was the only town in NS to crown a queen in a traditional pageant, which was Hope Shelley.
The town of Moroni does things differently to get their royalty. This last year they did an essay contest. The contestants had to write 1,000-word essays about why they thought they should be the next Miss Moroni. They also are individually interviewed. Moroni then decides the winner, who will be announced at the next city council meeting.
“I think it is the best way possible for our situation that we have, because our situation is that we don’t have very many girls,” said Phaedra Lamb a junior at NS, and the current Miss Moroni. “In the bigger cities you actually have girls who want to do a pageant.”
In years past they have wanted to do pageants, but they would never have enough participation. Another problem they have run into is they can’t find a pageant director.
“If we had more than four girls we would actually try to consider hosting a pageant, but because we have no interest this is the best way possible,” Lamb said.
Lamb does think the interview portion is very beneficial for the way her town does it because they still have to dress up and look presentable instead of just writing an essay.
“The other problem is we had girls who were interested, but they were like me, where they don’t have a performance talent, but they are very qualified in other things,” Lamb said.
Many girls in the smaller cities hear that a talent is involved in a pageant and they immediately are opposed to doing it. Some believe that it would be better without the talent portion at all to get more interest in pageanting.
“All I’m saying is we should drop the showiness,” Lamb said. “I understand that you need to look presentable and respectable and that is important that’s why it’s still a thing, but I really think that talent is what kills a lot of girls because sometimes you just don’t have a showy talent.”
Although Moroni enjoys the essay competitions for acquiring their royalty, essay competitions receive much more backlash than a traditional pageant. Because of the level of difficulty of a pageant, essay writing can look much easier.
“Yes they earned it, but I worked harder for mine. Yes, essays are hard, I got to give them that, but they are not that hard,” Belt said.
Another thing Moroni changes up is not including a platform. Instead of a platform, the contestants are required to do a town service project. This is to guarantee progression in the town. Moroni has not released a plan for next year but when it happens the process could change depending on how much participation they get.
Moroni will most likely continue writing essays, because the process is easier than putting on a pageant. They also feel like what they are doing is working well for the town.
“I don’t see why it matters that some little city is doing it differently,” Lamb said.
Another town that has done essays is Spring City, but this upcoming year they are planning to change a few things. The current queen of Spring City is Morgan Drew. They are not sure what it will look like yet this year, but it will most likely be held in April or May.
Fountain Green’s situation last year was also unique. They had little participation and so they gave the queen her title as Miss Lamb Day. As time went on there were more girls willing to join who became the queen’s attendants.
Now they have a new pageant director and they are planning on doing a pageant. It will be held in March.
Even if a girl doesn’t earn a crown from a pageant, many serve their community, work hard, learn skills, and work to become better people.
“It definitely helps benefit you with self-confidence and helps you not be so judgemental towards yourself,” said Alexis Bradley a junior at NS, and the current Miss Lamb Day.
