The Smelker Seven

Pageant Weekend

Back in March (or April) we received a letter in the post inviting our girls to an open call for National American Miss. I checked it out thoroughly before taking the girls to the first open call because the last thing I wanted was to spend money and feel we were gypped. Imagine my delight when I realised this is a great organization, with good morals, and they encourage girls to become the best they can be, without relying on looks. In fact, up until the Jr. Teen level (age 13 and up), the contestants are not allowed to wear make up.

The open call consisted of the girls undergoing a short one-on-one interview, and speaking in public to the people who were in attendance. We were informed that we would receive a call back letter if our girls were accepted. Part of me thought, "Yea right, everyone will receive a letter!" However, in looking at the number of girls who were in our open call, and knowing that two more were offered that same weekend in our location, as well as open calls in Houston, Austin and Dallas, I see now that to be chosen as one of the finalists was actually a great honor. If the same number of girls came to each open call, there were probably close to 900 girls in the South Texas area alone who attended open call. Only 140 made it to state finals, and our girls were two of them.



The weekend was an eye-opener for us. We opted to do just the basic pageant - personal introduction, one-on-one interview and formal wear. There is also a talent segment, an actress segment, a spokesperson segment, a modeling segment and a photogenic segment that are optional. It does not affect the judge's scoring if one participates in those optionals (they have different judges for the optional segments), but we noticed that those girls who were involved in the optional contests were also the ones who scored the highest with the pageant judges. I think the confidence the girls get from being so involved carried over to the pageant part.

Already the girls are talking about what they want to do for next year! Of course we have to go through the call backs again, but they should do just fine. And next year Terry and I will be better prepared - there are so many things we need to do as parents to prepare the girls too.



We had planned on doing on some sight-seeing this weekend. Now we know that it is impossible to do that! Once we were in the hotel our entire focus was pretty much on the pageant! Ah well - next time...

I am posting a couple of photos here, but here is a link to an album I created from the photos we took this weekend:

Smelker Girls.

Labels: Hayley, Houston, National American Miss, Pageant, Teagan, Terry, Warrick

posted by The Smelker Seven @ 7:57 PM