This February marked the beginning of Miss Carlsbad 2011: a pageant that seeks to award girls for their intelligence and accomplishments rather than their looks.

Sponsored by the Carlsbad Lions Club, the Miss Carlsbad and Miss Teen Carlsbad pageants pride themselves on being competitions that inspire young women to make a difference in their community.

“The competition was a great experience for me,” said Junior Natasha Maldi who competed for the title of Miss Teen Carlsbad last year. “I gained so much experience from it, experience that will definitely help me in the future.”

The competition also prides itself on the opportunities rewarded to its competitors. Contestants receive 200 hours of community service by being a part of the pageant and also have the opportunity to win scholarship money and internships as well.

“Through the competition I gained an internship for the company X-Energy,” Maldi said. “It was an amazing opportunity that I wouldn’t have been able to experience had it not been for the pageant.”

Along with the scholastic opportunities rewarded, the pageant also seeks to reward its contestants with social opportunities, such as meeting new people and making a difference in the community.

“I wanted to sign up for the pageant because I’ve heard from various people that it’s a ton of fun and that it’s a great opportunity to meet new friends,” said Junior Zoe White who plans to participate in the pageant this year.

The competition itself is based around finding one teen and one adult who best exemplify a charismatic and confident role model for the community. The areas of competition are broken down into four select groups: interview,
personality, poise and final questioning.  All four groups are centered around finding the two individuals who can best handle the job of being ambassadors for the City of Carlsbad.

Along with the credited title of Miss Carlsbad or Miss Teen Carlsbad, many other  titles are rewarded to competitors, such as miss congeniality, miss photogenic and people’s choice.

“It’s truly a terrific opportunity that I definitely recommend to everyone!” Maldi said. “I mean, who wouldn’t want to try out for something that lets you dress up and look pretty?”

If you’re someone interested in trying out for the competition, you’ll be happy to know it’s not to late. The competition for 2011 officially begins on February 20th and hopeful contestants need only visit the pageants official website at www.misscarlsbad.com to sign up.

“What I like about this pageant is that it’s not simply just a ‘beauty pageant’, it’s truly a competition that strives to bring out the best in an individual,” said Senior Alynia Phillips who attended the pageant last year.

For those unsure about signing up for the competition, make sure to stop by the Harding Community Center on April 2 and cheer on the contestants as they compete for the chance to be a role model and an inspiring individual for her
community.