Since I am part of the same system that Jen was involved in, I felt compelled to share my experience about the pageant system.
To begin, I have not been doing pageants my entire life. Some girls have, but I am not one of them. I competed in only three pageants, the Miss Illinois USA pageant for two years and then Miss USA. My first year I placed in the top 16 and the second year I won. The year I placed in top 16 my fellow Luvabull, Shanon Lersch, won. I told her after she won that I was going to win next year because I wanted to receive the title from her. That year I did everything I could to go into the pageant feeling my absolute best. I have always been physically active, but I thought could I train harder Could I work harder at the things I wanted The answer was yes. And luckily for me, it paid off. (I mention this because I believe, in fitness and in life, you can set a goal and achieve it if you want it bad enough). Personally, I do not believe that this system is degrading to women. (I am very interested in hearing peoples’ thoughts and opinions on if and why they believe it is degrading And is it pageants in general or the swimsuit competition). The swimsuit competition was my favorite part of the competition. Why because I worked my butt off to look the way I did. I view this segment as a fitness competition. My goal was not to be the thinnest person, it was to have a strong, toned and feminine body. And I can assure you, (as my friends and family will attest), that I eat a lot and definitely do not throw up afterward. In case you’re wondering, I did have a sparkly dress, and I absolutely loved it. I also know that brains will help you accomplish what you really want to in life. There is a reason why I focused on graduating from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign before I focused on my other goals, (such as this). I graduated with high honors receiving my bachelor of science in Kinesiology, just in case anyone wanted to know haha. I personally did not feel that the Miss Illinois USA system was at all rigged. (There are different owners from when Jen was in the pageant as well. Obviously, it was proven that they were rigging their pageant). I will be completely honest when I say that I was heartbroken that I didn’t place in the top 15, yet alone win, while competing for Miss USA. I felt I worked hard and would have been a good representative. However, life isn’t always fair. My reality is that everything works out the way it is supposed to and I was meant to come back here to Chicago. Why Because I wasn’t done with Chicago and Chicago wasn’t done with me.
How do I know this