Natural Pageants

      Natural Long Gown                     Natural Headshot

This week I received the same question from two different mothers whose daughters both want to be Miss America someday.

What is the difference between glitz and natural beauty pageants and which one do I recommend?

First of all, let me point out that the two young girls want to compete in the Miss America system someday. Secondly, I am a specialized natural pageant coach with my expertise being in resume writing, interview/communication skills, and positive mental attitude. Both glitz and natural pageants can help young girls develop confidence and stage presence in a fun environment; but there are big differences between the glitz and natural worlds of pageantry.

 

Natural Pageants

 

Pageant systems that fall under this category are NAM, COED, IJM, ANTSO, Cinderella, OLM, Outstanding Teen, Miss America, Teen-World, Miss USA, Mrs. America, Mrs. United States and Mrs. International. There are many more but this is a sampling of familiar systems to people within the pageant world.

• Generally speaking, the makeup guideline for children under 12 is zero to only mascara and lip gloss. Makeup used on teens and women is to enhance the natural beauty, not to become the focal point or to make them look like someone they’re not. The same goes for hairstyle. Always make sure to check with your director about the specifics for your pageant.

• Clothing is tasteful and has sparkle to it; but is not overly ornate. Wardrobe is usually purchased off the rack at a store and subtly embellished or customized by the contestant to reflect their sense of personality and style. The wardrobe is to always bring attention back to the girl wearing it. Not the other way around.

• Modeling style for gown is elegant and smooth. Arms and hands are close to your body moving in natural opposition (when you step forward with your right foot, your left arm is moving forward and so forth).

• Facial expressions are natural with the energy of the eyes and smile matching.

• Communication skills are developed through an on-stage introduction, personal interview and on-stage question.

 

Who does well in natural pageants? Contestants who enjoy speaking, are skilled in an artist talent, make good grades, have a charitable cause they’re passionate about, and are well rounded individuals tend to excel in natural pageants. These skills can easily transfer into life outside of the pageant stage.

 

Glitz Pageants

 

There are numerous glitz pageants across the country. If your child is blessed with facial beauty, then this may be the place to start. Glitz pageants offer the opportunity for young children to get use to being on stage before they can speak.

           Glitz Cupcake Dress                       Glitz Headshot

 

• In glitz pageants, you will see the use of hairpieces, heavy make-up, deep spray tans, fake teeth (called flippers), false eyelashes, and color contacts worn by the majority of the contestants.

• Clothing for glitz pageant is usually the short cupcake skirt dress. A cupcake dress is a dress that is several inches above the knee, has multiple layers of lace and is heavily stoned and bedazzled. Most of the dresses you see on the TV show Toddlers and Tiaras are cupcake dresses and are filmed at glitz pageants.

• Glitz pageants have their own style of modeling. Because of the full cupcake skirt, contestants learn to walk with their hands held away from their body with their finger tips gentle curving around the outer ruffle of their dress. When they walk, their arms don’t move in the natural oppositional way. Instead, they move in the same direction (if you step out with your right foot, the right arm moves slightly with it).

• Facial Expressions tend to be exaggerated with lots of eyelash batting, tilting of the head from side to side, and blowing kisses.

• Oral communication skills are limited in glitz pageants. If the contestant speaks, it is brief or only to say her name, age and where she is from. This may be because most of the contestants are babies and toddlers whose speech isn’t yet develop. Again, the focus is on outer beauty.

• Who does well in glitz pageants? Contestants who really enjoy getting all dressed up to create new characters on stage will love glitz pageants. The crowns are bigger than the child’s head and the trophies are twice their height. There are usually lots of prizes, too.

Just make sure your child can tolerant having their hair teased, eyelashes glued on, and wearing heavy makeup. Glitz pageants are high maintenance and expensive.  They are very popular and easy to find for children under the age of 5.

 
Because the glitz environment is about creating an illusion, it’s hard, but not impossible,  for children who have only done glitz pageants to successfully transition into natural pageants as they age up. The modeling style, limited speaking experience and facial expressions learned at a young age are hard habits to break.

So to answer the second part of the question as to which pageant type I would recommend, since these two little girls want to be Miss America someday (and what 10 year old doesn’t want to be) I would say stick to the natural pageant systems.

 

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INTERVIEW CARD

The ability to answer questions about you, your purpose, current events, and controversial topics in a clear way is an important life skill that everyone can benefit from. The more you practice, the better you will get. These handy interview cards are a great way to practice with a partner or use by yourself to get you thinking about the topic.
The Beginning 10 Questions are the staple interview questions everyone must know the answers in an interview situation. Then each month you will receive a new card in the mail with fresh questions.

Now preparing for your interview is easy and for a limited time FREE.

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Time to warm up for the summer pageant season and at the same time raise money for the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

11am-2:30pm

Location:

Teays Valley West Middle School,

200 Grove Run Road |Commercial Point, OH 43116

 

20% of all registration fees will be donated to the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life event taking place the same day on the track.

AWARDS and PRIZES

WWW.PUREAMERICANGIRL.WEBS.COM

Each queen will receive a certificate for $100 off the fees to the national PureAmerican Girl pageant, June 3-5, 2011 in Gallipolis, Ohio.

Each contestant will receive a certificate for $50 off the fees to the national Pure American Girl Pageant, June 3-5, 2011 in Gallipolis, Ohio.

http://www.ohioamericancoed.com/

Each queen will receive a certificate for $200 off the fees to the Ohio American Coed pageant, August 19-21, 2011 in Columbus, Ohio.
Each contestant will receive a certificate for $100 off the fees to the Ohio American Coed pageant, August 19-21, 2011 in Columbus, Ohio.
Each contestant will receive a gift bag, tiara and sash for participating.

More prizes being added by the day. Click on the link to learn all the details to participate in this pageant. Feel free to pass it on to your friends.

Rhonda Shappert is an expert pageant coach, an iPEC Certified Professional Coach, an Energy Leadership Index Master Practitioner, and a member of the International Coach Federation. She created Winning Through Pageantry® to partner with pageant contestants and their support people to provide complete pageant preparation, achieve winning results in life through pageantry, and to Succeed From The Inside Out®. She has over 30 years experience in the pageantry world as a contestant, judge, emcee, staff member, mother of daughters who compete, Mrs. Ohio America 2005, and has held multiple titles at the local, state and national levels.
Rhonda graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelors degree in Musical Theater from The Ohio State University and has performed on stage in 15 countries on the Asian, European and American continents. This mother of three home educates their children and has been married 22 years to her husband Stephen, is the former mayor of her community, and serves on the Board of Trustees for the Ohio Virtual Academy. She and her husband perform original contemporary Christian music. Their music CD entitled Cana is available through  www.cdbaby.com/cd/shappert or on her website. For more information on Rhonda, visit  www.WinningThroughPageantry.com .

 

 

For the person whose only exposure to beauty pageants is from what they see on television, it’s difficult to understand why anyone would choose to do a beauty pageant. After all, showcasing the benefits of doing a beauty pageant wouldn’t get the ratings that the drama does. But there are definite benefits or else pageantry wouldn’t be a multi-billion dollar industry.

Of the many benefits to participating in a pageant, I’m going to share my top five reasons.

 

1. Recognition.

People feel valued and appreciated when they receive recognition for their hard work. Some pageant systems offer cash prizes along with on-stage recognition for optional areas of participation such as talent, speech, commercials, modeling, community service, scholastic, letters of recommendation, career achievement and creative arts through scrapbooking, ad pages and decorating contests .

 

1. 2. Personal Development.

   The more a person recognizes and understands their strengths, values, likes, dislikes, beliefs, and personality style, the greater fulfillment and satisfaction they’ll experience from their life. The greatest self discovery and personal growth can come from working with an expert pageant coach who understands in depth how to use pageantry as a tool to develop the excellence within you.

2. 3. Communication Skills.

   The ability of articulate ones thoughts into written and spoken words is priceless. We live in an age where masses consider quality communicate as texting or posting an update on Face book. The skill of having a meaningful face to face conversation with another human being is being greatly diminished by technology. As an expert pageant coach and judge, I regularly encounter contestants with poor writing and verbal communication skills. This is very apparent in the paperwork that is submitted. By developing your communication skills, the relationships in your life will also develop in a life giving way.

3. 4. Confidence.

   The ability to face ones fears and take action anyway develops great confidence. It’s common knowledge that speaking in front of a crowd is the number one fear of people. Well, in pageantry there’s plenty of opportunity to get in front of large groups of people on a regular basis and develop a comfort level with being on stage. Through the interviewing process and introducing yourself to many people, your speaking skills will blossom in this arena.

4.  

5. 5. Handling Stress, Pressure and Disappointment.

   These reactions are a part of life. Your attitude and thoughts around these reactions can either move you forward towards fulfillment or break you down. Stress, pressure and disappointment don’t have to be viewed as negative things. In fact, they can be powerful motivators to accelerate you to the next level. It all depends on how you look at them. In pageantry, you will experience these to the fullest extent, and with guidance, you can learn how to flip them to work to your advantage.

Recognition, personal development, communication skills, confidence and handling the stress, pressure and disappointments in life are the benefits you’ll take with you from doing pageants. And if you really enjoy modeling, hair, makeup and fashion, oh the fun you will have learning these life lessons.

 

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Take a moment to list the benefits you receive from each of the activities you participate in. If you struggle to come up with benefits, decide if that is an activity you want to be spending your time doing.

Rhonda Shappert is an expert pageant coach and an iPEC trained personal development life coach. She created Winning Through Pageantry™, to partner with pageant contestants and their support people to provide complete pageant preparation and achieve winning results in life through pageantry. In the pageant world she has held multiple local, state and national titles. Rhonda graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelors degree in Musical Theater from The Ohio State University and has performed on stage in 15 countries on the Asian, European and American continents. This mother of three home educates their children and has been married 21 years to her husband Stephen, is the former mayor of her community, and serves on the Board of Trustees for the Ohio Virtual Academy. She and her husband perform original contemporary Christian music. Their music CD entitled Cana is available through www.cdbaby.com/cd/shappert or on her website . For more information on Rhonda, visit www.WinningThroughPageantry.com.

As a pageant coach, I’m frequently asked about what pageant systems are available to babies and young children. Since I was a judge at the Ohio Sunburst State Finals this past Saturday, I wanted to share this system with all of you.

 
Sunburst is now celebrating its 32 year and has been featured on the Travel Channel and Discovery Channel. The Sunburst system has launched the movie, TV and print work careers of many of its titleholders. The main focus of the pageant is on facial beauty. The judges and agents prefer a wholesome, age appropriate look on the younger contestants so please, no makeup on children 6 years of age and younger. This is taken right out of the state information guide.

 
For the beauty title, there are two areas of scoring-Interview (up close appraisal) and formal wear.
The interview is really an Up Close Appraisal; each contestant is in front of the judges for the same amount of time and will receive a facial beauty score only.

To help the contestants feel more comfortable, the judges may ask one question to help break the ice; but the answer is not scored nor is it a hard question. Typical interview questions would be like how old are you? What do you like to do? What pets do you have? What’s your favorite toy? What’s your favorite TV show? What school do you go to? What activities are you involved in?

Children 1 mos. - 4 years old must be accompanied by one adult. The attire for this event is an official Sunburst T-Shirt (which you receive at check-in) with your own white, denim or khaki shorts, skirts or pants, and shoes of any type.

 
Having judged this pageant for the past 8 years, I can’t stress this enough, please don’t put fake hair, flippers and makeup on your babies and young children here.

It is true that you will see both glitz and natural pageant contestants at the Sunburst pageant. However, the pageant system really wants the natural beauty of its children under the age of 6 to shine. Will you see some younger children wearing these things? Yes, but if something is really inappropriate or over the top, a judging panel will take this into consideration when giving a score.

 
Remember, they are looking for a wholesome, age appropriate look. That goes for all of the age groups.  With the main criteria being facial beauty, a beautiful face can be spotted with or without makeup. You want everything to be tasteful.

 
The second scored area is Formal Wear. Attire for 1 mos.- 10 year old girls can be short or long party or pageant dresses. Adding my personal opinion here, the most flattering length for short dresses on young girls is a couple inches above the knee so the whole knee cap is exposed. A long dress should touch the floor. Fit is everything. The dress can’t be too tight, too big, too long or too short. Since children grow, have it tailored about 10 days before the pageant. That means finding a good seamstress before the pageant and having her reserve that time for you.

For girls ages 11-27, the formal wear attire is long gowns that are age appropriate. All boys are to wear a suit or tux.

For babies 1 month -4 years, each child will go to the center stage with one adult where they will receive their score. Girls 5-27 years are judged from the center stage. Do all your modeling in the center only.

There are no extra points given if little 9 month old Sally holds your finger and takes 30 seconds to step, step her way to center stage. Then when she gets to center stage, she’s so tired that she wants to sit down. When you try to make her stand and face the judges, she throws a fit because it took all her energy to walk there. Do yourself a huge favor, carry your young child to the center and then let her stand IF she is able. You want her best behavior to be at center stage because that is where the judges are told to award the score. A tantrum does not score high.

 
There are many side awards for prettiest eyes, hair, smile, personality, and attire; along with optional model search, daycare/school wear, swimwear, photogenic, talent, portfolio, composite and mail-in photo contests for the contestants to participate in as well.

 
State Pageant Age Groups
Age is determined by age the contestant is on the 1st day of the State Pageant:

Girls

• 0-15 mos.

• 6-23 mos.

• 2 yrs.

• 3 & 4 yrs.

• 5-6 yrs.

• 7-10 yrs.

• 11-13 yrs.

• 14-17 yrs.

• 18-27 yrs. ( contestants may be married or single)

Boys

• 0-23 mos.

• 2-4 yrs.

For questions about the preliminary and state pageants in your area, go to the national website at http://www.sunburstbeauty.com/

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Rhonda Shappert is an expert pageant coach and an iPEC trained personal development life coach. She created Winning Through Pageantry™, to partner with pageant contestants and their support people to provide complete pageant preparation and achieve winning results in life through pageantry. In the pageant world she has held multiple local, state and national titles. Rhonda graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelors degree in Musical Theater from The Ohio State University and has performed on stage in 15 countries on the Asian, European and American continents. This mother of three home educates their children and has been married 21 years to her husband Stephen, is the former mayor of her community, and serves on the Board of Trustees for the Ohio Virtual Academy. She and her husband perform original contemporary Christian music. Their music CD entitled Cana is available through www.cdbaby.com/cd/shappert or on her website . For more information on Rhonda, visit www.WinningThroughPageantry.com.