Each year, about 20 teenage girls participate in the Miss Teen Carlsbad Scholarship Pageant. It is not a beauty pageant but a pageant based on personality. This year, the Miss Teen Carlsbad Scholarship Pageant takes place on Saturday, Mar. 2 at 6 p.m. in the Carlsbad Cultural Arts Center.
The pageant begins with all the contestants performing a choreographed dance number fitting the theme of the pageant. This year’s theme will be Saturday Night Fever using “Night Fever” by the Bee Gee’s as the opening number.
“The best part of the pageant is the opening number because you are not judged on it and you can just relax and have fun on stage,” junior Sophie Mekjian said.
For the next part of the pageant, the contestants give a speech about themselves to a panel of five judges and then are asked a series of questions about their speech. The girls will be scored on overall personality, presentation, diction and poise.
After the speeches, the girls participate in the beauty part of the pageant where the contestants model floor-length evening gowns. The girls are judged on overall appearance, poise, posture and projection of personality.
Finally, the past queens will come on stage with slips of paper with different questions on them and each contestant will choose one to answer. The purpose of the question is to make sure the winner will be able to handle herself well when speaking at community events.
“These questions are pretty easy because the judges use them as a way to see your personality,” junior Sarah Nirschl said.
Besides winning queen, contestants also have the opportunity to win Miss Congeniality, Miss Photogenic and People’s Choice. The contestants vote for the girl who they thought was the most friendly and helpful during the pageant to be crowned Miss Congeniality. Miss Photogenic will be chosen by the pageant photographer after he takes all the head-shots of the girls for the pageant program. The People’s Choice winner is chosen by having the audience members buy votes for their favorite contestant during the pageant.
The queen and the three runner-ups spend the next year helping out in the community.
“We do a lot of community service after the pageant; we become ambassadors in a sense,” Nirschl said.
Each year, the girls attend six parades around the community to represent Carlsbad.
“My favorite part is going to the parades and seeing the little girls’ excited faces when they meet us,” Nirschl said.
Carlsbad High School girls can still enroll to be a contestant in this pageant. Entry forms are due on Feb. 6. To sign up, students can go online to misscarlsbad.com and print out the form to send to Elaine Brammell, the Pageant director.
“My advice to new contestants is to be comfortable on stage,” Mekjian said. “The judges look for people who are confident.”
