Today I have a guest post from Shadei Terry-Coleman from Tiara Obsessions. She is sharing 3 Things Pageants Taught Me. I hope you find this informative and encouraging. Enjoy!
When I first thought about competing in pageants, I didn’t stop to think about the positive impact it would have on me for years to come. I thought about how fun it would be to win a pageant and since I loved modeling and acting, I figured it would be a great fit.
My very first pageant was a National American Miss pageant. I was 17 and completely new to the pageant world. Before competing in pageants, I did a few small fashion shows and went on acting auditions trying to work towards my dreams of stardom. I thought that being in a pageant would be similar. It was not!
For people that aren’t familiar with pageants, they commonly assume that pageants and modeling are the same. That is so far from the truth! I found that out once I arrived to pageant weekend. I quickly realized how unprepared I was. I was not familiar with doing roundtable interviews, the way to answer questions or the proper way to do a personal introduction.
I did have a great experience overall but, honestly, after the pageant, I didn’t feel the best. Little did I know leaping to do my first pageant would have me hooked! I competed in pageants for another 5 years and eventually won a title! I learned so much through all my experiences.
I understand pageants may not be for everybody and everyone may not always leave with a crown, but I believe there is something positive that everyone can walk away with.
Here are 3 positive things I learned from competing in pageants:
- Putting your best foot forward.
Presenting yourself in a positive light is important in any capacity but when competing in pageants, it’s essential to your success. During the different categories of competition, you control the narrative. You control what you want to wear, how you want to do your hair and what you tell the judges about you.
In many pageants, the judges use a bio sheet to reference during the interview portion to ask the contestants questions. Of course, you may be asked questions that have nothing to do with the information you give them, but making sure you put positive and interesting information about yourself can help you be prepared for possible questions.
It can be so easy to doubt yourself especially when you are going after a dream. However, putting your best foot forward helps you and the judges to focus on your strengths and interesting things that make you stand out.
- Play on your strengths.
We all have weaknesses but a pageant is not the time to focus on them. There’s nothing wrong with mentioning a weakness if you can do it in a light-hearted way or if you use it to talk about your growth in a particular area. Would you go to a job interview and talk about all the things you can’t do? Probably not.
Ex: If I’m asked a question about “What’s something you do well?” I wouldn’t go on to talk about all the things I CAN’T do well or how I feel I’m not good many things. I would mention one thing I CAN DO well. If there wasn’t anything I thought I did well, I would talk about something I like to do and talk about how I would love to grow in that area and what excites me about it.
- Developing interviewing skills.
Before I started competing in pageants, I didn’t have that much experience interviewing for jobs. The pressure of meeting someone new and hoping the right things words come out can be nerve-wracking. Through my years of competing, I learned how helpful it can be to smile during an interview, give good eye contact, avoid filler words (um, uh, you know), and not give one-word explanations. I became so much more confident in my interview skills after competing in pageants.
These 3 points are only a few positive things I learned from pageants. There is so much more! So don’t listen to those people that say pageants are pointless or a waste of time. If you go into it thinking you will walk away with something positive, you will! Of course, winning a pageant is great ; however if you don’t win it doesn’t mean you are not a winner!
Shadei Terry-Coleman is the Founder of Tiara Obsessions, a pageant lifestyle blog sharing updates on pageants, pageant advice, pageant tips and more! Shadei is also a Freelance Social Media Manager and enjoys helping brands and small businesses shine on social media.
Follow Shadei on Facebook, Instagram, Instagram, Youtube, and Twitter.
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