Why Should You Donate? This is bigger than just a beauty pageant!

            Everyone noticed South Asian women making history in pageantry this year. First Nina Davaluri won Miss America. In my most recent pageant experience, the winner of Miss New Jersey USA 2014 was Emily Shah, an Indian-American from Edison, NJ.

            Clearly, the boundaries of what “beauty” is in the U.S. are changing. Despite all of these victories, pageants are still dominated by white faces, and some black faces. This is not that different from the rest of the media that we see every day.

            How many models have you seen of South Asian decent?

How many TV cab drivers have you seen that are of South Asian descent?

[Apu - http://simpsons.wikia.com/]

South Asians are often pigeon holed into very stereotypical roles, such as the cab driver on the popular TV show How I Met Your Mother and Apu, the convenience store owner from The Simpsons. Furthermore, up until a few years ago, there had never been a South Asian supermodel.

           South Asians are highly underrepresented in all of the entertainment industries, including modeling and pageantry. By supporting me, you will help to break boundaries for South Asian people in general. This will help for brown faces to not only be accepted into careers in entertainment more readily, but also to be accepted as beautiful in a mainstream sense. 

[Lakshmi Menon - http://www.independent.co.uk/]

            By supporting me, you will be assisting me in affording better photographers, pageant coaches and more flexibility in purchasing my wardrobe. Being able to afford the previously mentioned services and items will help me to reach higher levels of competition in my preparation for the pageant. If I am to place in next year’s Miss New York USA pageant in 2015, it will mean that South Asians are continuing to make strides in the U.S.

Whether we like it or not, money does make a difference in pageantry, and every penny raised will help!

Pageant Girls Are Not Dumb Girls - Why I Compete.

Before I ever decided to compete in a pageant, I was more understanding of the stigma that surrounds pageantry, that pageant girls are “dumb” girls that are obsessed with nothing but appearances. While beauty is a huge part of pageantry, there are so many other aspects to competing in a pageant that requires women to be confident, intelligent, hard-working and talented that I have come to be confused by how this stigma came about. Why do we see beautiful women as unintelligent? Why do we jump on the opportunity to make fun of a pageant girl for answering a question in a silly way on stage, when the leaders of our cities, states and country are doing the same thing every day? I want to break some stereotypes by explaining why I compete in pageants and why I feel that I am growing into a very whole individual because of pageantry.

What it takes.

(1)   It’s expensive. Everyone reading this may be aware of how much work it takes to raise money to afford competing in a pageant. The wardrobe, pageant coaching, speech coaching, make-up, pageant fees… it adds up! This is absolutely the most expensive extracurricular activity I have ever heard of or taken on. Learning how to effectively fundraise is a major learning point for individuals competing in pageants.

(2)   Market Yourself. Pageantry is all about knowing how to market yourself. The ladies who place in pageants stand out in all areas of the competition, starting with a good headshot. One other part of all pageants is the interview and MC forms. These are the forms that the pageant contestants fill out to tell the audience and judges a little bit about who they are. The judges are only seeing you for a snap. You want this impression to WOW them. The ladies whose interview and MC forms do not stand out, do not make it.  

(3)   Fashion Sense. A pageant wardrobe has to reflect a pageant contestant’s sense of style, make her look amazing and stand out on stage. Knowing how to manage a beautiful wardrobe that works on stage takes brains and visual talent.

(4)   Confidence. Most people—not just women—would never think about doing a runway walk on stage in front of thousands of people. Believe it or not, being able to do this has helped me to come out of my shell, be more confident and talk about the things that I want to do. It is a commonly stated piece of advice that if you want to do something, you have to talk about it. The amount of tenacity that I am gaining through pageantry is helping me to start a private practice for nutrition and wellness and pursue a career in modeling. Two things that definitely would not be happening so fast without having pageantry in my life.

(5)   Standing Up For Yourself and What You Believe In. Lastly, there are so many stigmas surrounding pageantry and so many people who do not understand why someone would want to compete in a pageant. Thus, pageantry has taught me to stand up for myself and for what I believe in. Today we live in a world where people are losing a sense of individuality. Pageantry helps to instill the idea of individuality in the women that participate. Furthermore, a strong individual is a person who will stand up for themselves, what they believe in and will ultimately make the world a better place through these characteristics.

Reflection on 2014 (On to the Next One)

            Last month’s pageant left me feeling empowered and excited for life. The Miss New Jersey USA 2014 pageant made me realize a new love and passion: pageantry. A week after the Miss New Jersey USA 2014 on October 18^th – 20^th, I started planning for the 2015 Miss New Jersey USA pageant.

            I know what I need to do to stand out this year. So far, I’ve lined up two pageant coaches and one speech coach. I have my heart set on designing my evening gown and know exactly what I want for my interview dress. If I can find what I want for my interview in stores, I will purchase it, if not I would like to design that as well. However, I have yet to find someone with exceptional sewing skills and knowledge of pageant wear that will be able to help me finish these projects. Please contact me if you have any suggestions!

            Because I am taking on additional coaching this coming year, my budget for this year’s pageant is a few thousand dollars higher. I’m trying to keep the same budget for my wardrobe. But I know the cost of what I will need is still going to add up.

            My goals for the next few weeks are to set up appointments for the rest of the year with my three coaches, find an evening gown designer – who is also a highly skilled seamstress, get new headshots done with a photographer experienced with modeling, and lastly I must draft my fundraising letters! I plan to raise close to $5000 for this year to cover at least 75% of the pageant. I will be hitting up all of my favorite spots in the Princeton and New York areas and business owners that I know, so hopefully that will drum up some success for me!

I have a PayPal account link on this website and am accepting donations! If you know of a business that could use some cheap advertising, please let them know. Any of my sponsors will have their name or business name listed under my name in the pageant booklet.

            Wish me luck! Any support that you can offer me in this process will help greatly!