Miss Charleston Pageant 2018

Congratulations to all of the young ladies who were crowned at the 2018 Miss Charleston pageant! Photos taken by Darla Sigmon (@mcsig96 on Instagram)

Being in the pageant community, you get to meet and learn from so many different people. There are many honors that come along with being a “Forever Queen”, one being that you can participate as a judge for other pageants!

When the invite came in to judge the 2018 Miss Charleston pageant, I jumped at the chance! Getting to meet the contestants and learn of their ambitions was so exciting. Also, seeing all of their beautiful style choices was definitely an added bonus!

The first task was to interview all of the girls in the Jr. Miss Charleston and Miss Charleston categories. It was definitely weird to be on the other side of the interview table and ask questions to the undoubtably nervous young women. One of the most striking aspects to me while I was getting acquainted with each contestant was how mature and ambitious each of them were. They all had a glitter of excitement for the future in their eyes. Many of them were interested in pursuing a careers in a STEM field. One girl included on her biography page that her goal was to graduate college debt free!

As we went along asking questions, there was a mutual feeling among all of the girls that they saw the Miss Charleston pageant as a way to encourage other girls and meet new friends. Hearing this was very exciting for me because I know how many friends I have gained from participating in pageants, and the skills I learned has helped even to this day.

After a wonderful round of interviews, the judges and directors of the pageant all headed to a lovely lunch at the Charleston Country Club. The decor was elegant and the food was delicious! Were were lucky enough to have the whole formal dining area to ourselves so we were all able to take a moment and enjoy our beautiful surroundings.

Soon it was time for the stage portion of the pageant. The venue was packed with people flooding in to cheer on their each contestant! The energy was electric, and it was so exciting to see a community rally around the all of the young women on stage.

As each lady elegantly floated across the stage with, our job as judges got harder and harder. The contestants each did an amazing job with the pop questions they were given. Answering something so quickly on stage in front of a large crowd is never easy, but they all handled the pressure with grace!

This was it! The time to choose the lucky winners for each age group. Our scores were tallied up and the names were put into envelopes. All we could do now was sit back and wait for the winners to be announced. We all three were very confident in our decisions. The job was tough because they were all so amazing, but alas only one girl could win.

After each name was announced, the crowd would roar with applause and excitement while the excited young lady would display a shocked expression and be crowned. Watching someone’s dream come true is an amazing feeling, one that can’t quite be a captured in any other way. The best part was that the girls who we picked would receive a scholarship to further their education. After interviews, I realized how exciting it was that so many of the contestants had an interest in science related fields of study, and how we would be able to encourage women entering this profession!

I am so thankful I had the opportunity to be apart of the 2018 Miss Charleston pageant! Thank you to the directors for inviting me to judge this year, I was so honored to be apart of this process! Now I have made even more friends though parents because I had two fantastic ladies to be my fellow judges for the day, Kayla Whiteman and Kelsa Bartels.

This was an amazing experience and I am so excited for all of the young girls who competed in the pageant because I know, win or lose, they all have very bright futures ahead of them!

Much Love,

Sarah

I was so lucky to have my first time judging an all devision pageant be alongside two women who were kind and experienced! (left to right: me, Kayla Whiteman, and Kelsa Bartels)