Pageants

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Call For Indiana Teen Contestants!

Published February 5, 2012 by Ashley Pariseau

The Miss Teen Indiana International Pageant is currently seeking interested contestants for their 2012 title. If you or someone you know is a resident of Indiana and between the ages of 13-18 and wants more info on how to apply, please contacts me via email at AshleyBPariseau@gmail.com, or in the comments section below and I can send you an application. The girl selected for this title will represent Indiana for the Teen division at the Miss Teen International in Chicago this July.

About Miss Teen International system:

“Beginning 23 years ago, the Mrs. International Pageant® was developed to have higher standards than other pageant systems. The focus behind Miss Teen International Competition® is to showcase teens who are 13 to 18 years old, by July 1st of competition year and are a resident of the state or a citizen of the country they represent. Each contestant competes in Interview Competition valued at 40% of their total score, Evening Gown valued for 20%, Fitness Wear for 20%, and Fun Fashion Wear 20%. Each contestant has the opportunity to select a platform of her choice that she spends the year promoting.”

 

This is a wonderful opportunity for young girls! For further informational on this event, visit missteeninternational.us .

Oh, The Miss America Organization

Published January 15, 2012 by Ashley Pariseau

Ok so I love the Miss America Pageant and everything their organization stands for.  After having watched the 2012 broadcast last night, I was disappointed to see how much they are trying to turn it into a reality show. I understand that for the past few years, they have been trying out different ways to tweak the show and make little changes to improve and boost their ratings, but I don’t think that doing contestant “saves” and “vote outs” are the best way to go. All it did was cause humiliation to some of the contestants. It was actually kind of distasteful how certain things were done. I guess they think that is what the public likes, but I think they missed the mark.

In my opinion, if they want the general public to become more interested in the organization and annual show, they should put these contestant and winners into the mainstream and really showcase what these women do with their reign all year round. As soon as these women win their local title, they are out there doing events, appearances, promoting a platform and I think the organization should focus more on the women and their accomplishments rather than just what’s going on in the show that one night only. The public doesn’t understand how Miss America is relevant in today’s society, and that’s because they don’t actually see it and that is because the organization doesn’t put much effort into showing anything other than the live broadcast of the new winner. There’s SO much that goes on after the winner is crowned, let’s see it!

On that note, congrats to Miss Wisconsin, Laura Kaeppeler!

What did you think of the show last night?

Blog Repost – Who Says Pageant Queens Can’t Be Feminists?

Published November 13, 2011 by Ashley Pariseau

I came across this awesome post from TheFBomb.org where the author interviewed current Miss USA Alyssa Campanella.

I was recently given the opportunity to interview Miss USA. Since I don’t really keep up on the pageant world I had to do some research. Alyssa Campanella seemed like a fine person – I was mostly curious to ask her about feminism.

Alyssa currently lives in New York City with Miss Universe. She is hardly ever there because of all the fabulous places she “has” to travel to such as Chicago, Miami, the Bahamas, Los Angeles, Cannes and others. Once her reign as Miss USA is over she wants to attend culinary school and has been doing some work with the Food Network to prepare.

Now for the interview:

Pageants receive criticism because they are seen as negative to young women because the focus is on appearance. How do you think pageants can be empowering?
Part of my job is to travel around with charity organizations raising awareness about women’s issues. I’m learning skills that I can apply to my future. This work is not just about being a glamazon. I help out organizations such Susan G. Komen For The Cure, Gilda’s Club, God’s Love We Deliver, and Project Sunshine. I would rather put less make up on, wear jeans, and spread cheer.

Are you a feminist?
We are all human beings, so what if we have different body parts? There are women presidents — not in the U.S. but soon. There are women all over the world in positions of power doing a good job such as the Queen of Denmark and Brazil’s president. In history, there is Margaret Thatcher England’s first female prime minister. We don’t need only a man to do the job. Let women have power.

Have you had negative experiences that have helped to shape you into a better person?
I was bullied as a kid. I became so upset about going to school I asked my mom to homeschool me. I was bullied because of what I wore. I liked to dress more mature, like my mom, so I was shopping at New York & Co. when I was 12. I took school very seriously and was teased about that. I never went to high school parties, so I wasn’t cool. When I became Miss Teen New Jersey everyone wanted to be my friend, but I knew it wasn’t sincere and remained friends with the three people who always stuck by me. I’m naturally thin and have always been teased about that. Even at Miss Universe people were spreading rumors that I was anorexic. I was stressed and eating a lot, but the weight wasn’t sticking.

We commiserated over how it is socially acceptable to tell someone they are too thin and to eat a burger. However, if you reverse that and tell an overweight person to eat a salad you are vilified. What people need to know is that feelings are hurt in both scenarios. And women shouldn’t be attacking each other’s weights out of insecurities and jealousies.

Any favorite quotes?

My mom always said “You can’t make a difference in the world without knowing what’s going on in it.” She would leave a newspaper on the table in the morning and I would read it while eating breakfast. I still do this every day and I feel weird if I don’t.

Any advice on how to stay motivated on the path to fulfilling one’s goals?
You aren’t a loser unless you give up. If you don’t get what you want it’s because something else is on the horizon if you keep going. That’s what happened with me. I placed first runner up in a pageant, but I persisted and won Miss USA.

Source

This post was a breath of fresh air! And might I add that Alyssa seems like the best Miss USA that we have had in a while. I have briefly talked to her through facebook and she seems so nice, humble, and genuine. I would love the chance to meet her!

Pageant Updates

Published October 16, 2011 by Ashley Pariseau

On Tuesday I received the folder of information from my director with a letter of congratulations, some info about pageant week, last year’s program book, and instructions on what to do next, which was work on getting a head shot for the website and to  make a $300 deposit towards the entry fee cost of nationals. I sent that out yesterday, so once they receive that they send me my contract to sign which will be largely about my appearances, financial, and behavioral expectations.  Then I start obtaining sponsors for the rest of the entry fee, which is due by January 1st, but I’m going to work hard to get as much of it as I can by December 1st which is my own deadline so I can motivate myself better. After I turn in the entry fee, I receive my sash and crown and can start making appearances. So that is the rundown of where I am right now.

A lot of people have been asking me what all do I win if I win this pageant next summer. To be honest, I wasn’t even sure at first since the prizes aren’t my main concern. So I asked my director what the prize package was for winning Miss International. She responded…

$5,000.00 in clothing
$2,000.00 cash
$2,000.00 travel allowance
$1,000.00 in titlewear clothing
Luggage
All expenses back to Chicago
All stationary for the year (autograph photos, envelopes, business cards & stationary)
Year of Clay Spann cosmetics
Crown
Sash
Jewelry
Camera

More!

Sounds pretty good, huh?! But like I said, winning the prizes isn’t why I am entering this. For me it’s about the possibilities and career opportunities that winning the title would help present to me, and also about giving me a public platform to advocate awareness of domestic violence. Even if that prize package didn’t exist, I would still be as equally excited to enter and win.

Miss Indiana International 2012

Published October 8, 2011 by Ashley Pariseau

I am pretty excited to announce that I was recently awarded the title of Miss Indiana International 2012!!! My director is the lovely Mary Richardson who is the creator and director of the Miss International Pageant based in the United States.

What this means for me is that I am going to be doing events and appearances around Indiana during my reign. My platform that I will be promoting during my year is Domestic Violence – Awareness & Prevention which as I have posted before, is an issue that I am passionate about and I am very excited to get to publicly advocate this cause. I will be posting more on that later.

I will also be representing Indiana in the Miss International Pageant that will take place in Chicago in July of 2012, and I want to place well so there is a lot of work to do between now and then because there are a lot of expenses, needs, and preparations to make for pageant week. I am supposed to receive a package of information including my contract in the mail by Monday and get a headshot for website. If you go to the national website that I link above, you can see photos and videos about the International system and what it is about. This particular pageant is more platform and community service based than it is a “beauty pageant” (I hate that term anyway). It is probably my favorite system that I have researched online so far so I am excited to be able to get to participate with them.

I will be blogging my experience as Miss Indiana and my preparations for Miss International on here frequently as well as my regular posts that I have been doing. A lot of the state queens so far have made their own separate blogs and facebook pages particularly for their title but I’m not sure I want to do that yet because I don’t want to have to update several blogs and facebook pages for every thing that goes on, but we’ll see how it goes.

I can’t wait to get started on this journey!

Competing for Miss International – Now Accepting Donations!

Published January 20, 2011 by Ashley Pariseau

As some of you may already know, I was recently awarded the title of Miss Indiana International 2012, and I am currently preparing to compete in the Miss International pageant next summer. The dates are July 27th and 28th, 2012 at the Northshore Center for the Performing Arts in Chicago, Illinois. The total entry fee is $1,500 ($300 of which I already have covered) and that is due as soon as possible. Additionally, there is a list of personal expenses for wardrobe and other competition needs that I will be needing as well. I am willing to work to pay for some of these expenses on my own, but of course I will be accepting and appreciative of any help in the process.

I am looking for businesses, family and friends, readers of my blog, or any other kind individuals to help sponsor me with these costs. I am also looking for in-kind services like photos, hair, makeup, etc as well as wardrobe donations if you would like to do that instead of money. Some of you I will be approaching individually with more details on this journey but I may not be able to reach everyone who would be interested in making a donation, so I decided to make a post here.

Why am I competing?
This is a wonderful opportunity for me. Winning Miss International will provide me with the chance to make the most of my dreams and aspirations and to take important causes to an international level. It will help in opening many doors for me that I would not normally have. If I didn’t win, it would still give me a lot of experience in my own self development. Pursuing pageants has already given me a lot of confidence and motivation to think about my purpose in life and the kind of person I want to be. For anyone that knows me personally, they know that growing up I have always been pretty quiet, and I realized that I think that doing pageants like this will help bring out the voice in me that I have always had. I am already so excited about starting preparation. It’s a lot of work but I know it will be well worth it, especially if I bring home the crown!

What is my platform?
A “platform” is a pageant term that basically means a personal cause that you plan to support and advocate during your reign. The Miss International Pageant system gives us the opportunity to choose a cause of our own to support. Mine is Domestic Violence – Awareness and Prevention. I chose this platform because it is an issue that isn’t as widely talked about in the media and not many people know what to do when they or a loved one is affected, yet if affects so many more people than we realize. This is a cause that is very important to me and as Miss Indiana International, I will already be scheduling appearances and events for my cause throughout Indiana. If I won Miss International, I can do even more to support this cause.

There is also the Miss International’s official platform which all of us state title holders will support as well, which is Go Red For Women which is a campaign by the American Heart Association to raise awareness and education about heart disease in women.

Why should you sponsor? What’s in it for you?
For business, if you choose to accept this special request I believe my pageant experience could be of benefit to your business. There will be advertising of your business offered in the official pageant program book, in press releases, and also your business’s logo will be printed at the bottom of autographed photos. Another benefit to you upon your sponsorship would be a positive image and public awareness, as well as more exposure and probable sales to your business. I would also be happy to make any appearances or help with any events associated with your business as part of the exchange and of my gratitude. Other arrangements are negotiable.

Donating
If you would like to have more information about my competing, I have put together an official sponsorship proposal in a word document with all of the details for those of you who are interested. Just drop me a line and I can send that out to you.

If you choose to donate and wish to be compensated, I am willing to negotiate. You may wish to donate anonymously if you like. Any amount is much appreciated and helpful, even if just $5.

Donations can be made via paypal, check, or money order, although I recommend paypal since it is very easy for transactions. The donation button is below. If you are interested in helping me with my entry fee, or if you have any questions or concerns, email me at AshleyBPariseau@gmail.com or leave a comment below and I will get back to you as soon as possible!

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