Sarah Bell started competing in pageants in tenth grade to showcase her musical talent and found it to be a positive experience.
“I think a lot of people think we compete against each other, but really we lift one another up,” Bell, a senior studying communication studies, said.
While reality television and movies, like Toddlers and Tiaras and Little Miss Sunshine, may be the pervasive vessel of pageant culture, pageant contestants like Bell want to change that narrative.
Dana Furlong, a sophomore studying biological science pre-med, started competing in pageants at 13 years old, and said the pageant experience is nothing like what is portrayed in the media.
“It’s not at all like the television shows,” Furlong said.
Having contestants compete for one crown during a competition may seem like a recipe for disaster, but Furlong discovered a love for the atmosphere of the pageant experience.
“There’s no mean girls,” Furlong said. “At a lot of the competitions there’s bonding exercises for the girls. At every competition I’ve been to, girls help each other with makeup and hair.”
Furlong and Bell said there is a misconception that the competitions are solely focused on physical beauty.
“People think the swimsuit portion is degrading to women, but it’s made me more confident,” Furlong said.
The motivations for competing are often different than what pop culture portrays, Bell said.
“Before, I was introverted, and I wanted a place to learn about who I am as a person,” she said. “I compete because I like to empower women.”
Bell is the current Miss Heart of Ohio and has competed all around the country, including Las Vegas, where she competed against women from all around the world. She said she finds pageants uplifting instead of degrading.
Friendship is a main pillar in many pageants, Jackie Watson, founder and national executive director of USA National Miss pageants, said.
“Girls make wonderful relationships with girls who are often goal-oriented,” Watson said. “This is a place where they belong.”
The benefits of pageants are far from vain and often veer into the professional world.
“Girls gain amazing life skills, such as how to act in an interview and how to effectively communicate,” Watson said.
For some, what they think of pageant contestants originates from Miss Teen USA South Carolina 2007, Caitlin Upton, and her viral pageant response about Americans being able to locate the United States on a map, according to USA Today.
For many pageants, including Watson’s USA National Miss, involvement in the community and the platforms contestants develop from that involvement are as important as how one struts across the stage.
“They don’t just want the crown, they have a desire to serve their communities,” Watson said.
