Fashion & Style
Miss Teen Canada - World Hopefuls Strut Their Stuff
Miss Teen Canada-World hopeful Jennifer Fowler, 15, from New Brunswick, gets ready to answer a tough question from Lorraine Zander, Editor-in-Chief of Faze Media, as Anjari Sandhu, 16, from Manitoba and Floriana Costea, 17, from British Columbia look on.
The girls will compete against 54 finalists from across Canada, aged 13-19. The big pageant on Saturday night is at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in the John Bassett Theatre.
The winner of Miss Teen Canada-World will go on to represent Canada at the Miss Teen World 2010 Competition in Houston, Texas next month.
Katie Starke, 19, the current Miss Teen Canada-World, is from Uxbridge, Ont. She's wearing a dress from Freda's clothing store in Toronto. She'll pass on her crown on Saturday night.
I attended the Faze Teen Party "I Will WOW You!" Event yesterday at the Six Degrees event centre, where the finalists got to make their best first impression and get a bit of last minute coaching.
Katie Starke is not your typical beauty queen. Sure, she's five-foot-ten-and-a-half and blonde, but she also plays hockey.
"My friends were all shocked that I won because I was a tomboy and I'm always playing sports," said Starke. "I only entered in the first place because people told me I'm tall and I should model. After watching Miss Universe on TV, I thought, 'Yeah, I can do that' and got a modelling agent three months before the contest.
"I used to bite my nails and so I got a manicure. I had my hair done and my ears pierced for the first time. I learned to walk in heels one month before the Miss Teen World contest."
When she's not wearing her tiara, Starke is a student at York University, where she's working towards a degree in Business Administration Studies. She's the oldest of three girls, and her dad used to play in the CFL.
"It's not just about being pretty. You also have to be a good speaker, be able to present yourself confidently, do community work and be smart and athletic," said Starke.
Miss Teen Canada-World hopeful Joanna Mandap, 17, from Toronto.
Joanna Mandap is representing Toronto at the finals on Saturday night.
Carol-Ann McManiman, 16, from Quebec reacts to a question posed to her in a mock question in front of her fellow contestants.
Perhaps the most fun and gruelling moment came when representatives from each province went up on stage and were put on the spot with some probing questions. You try answering these when pressured in front of a room full of strangers:
"Should you read your boyfriend's text messages if you think he's been cheating on you?"
"Your best friend wants to know if it's okay to go after your ex-boyfriend after he broke up with you. After all it's been an entire five months since you broke up. And you're still not over him. What do you tell her?"
Floriana Costea ponders her answer to a question.
One of the components to the pageant is charity work. Each girl surpassed the requirement of raising at least $400 in her community across Canada. So far, the girls have raised $45,000 for Free The Children.
Miss Teen Canada-World provides an opportunity to be an ambassador for Canada and take a leadership role in their community. The teens will be judged on academic achievement, presentation, self-confidence and community contributions.
The Miss Teen Canada - World finals is on Saturday night at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in the John Bassett Theatre at 8 p.m. It will be hosted by Degrassi: The Next Generation's Paula Brancati and Adamo Ruggiero.
Photos by Roger Cullman.
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I was going to say, with the exception of one, it's REFRESHING to see that none of these girls look like Barbies.
Bummer, your name is apt...but your little comment is a big deal to girls this age, where self image and how others see you is everything, and in one smart ass comment like yours, you could really do a number on young girl's feelings. You should be proud.
To Miss new Brunswick, and to all the girls....GOOD FOR YOU to even put yourself up there.
bummer, if you ever have a daughter, you should be sure to check her arms daily, with a father like you, she is sure to become a self-cutter.
I'm 6'2" and when I walked by her, I was definitely amazed (tall girls always get my attention). A great and friendly personality too! I asked her who she was and what she represented, she had no problems holding a quick conversation with a complete stranger, with smiles too.
Unfortunately, I forgot to get a photo with her, that would've made my day. Stupid me.
Beauty contests are stupid and horribly damaging to girls' self esteem.
Parents should encourage girls to play sports. Make art. Play a musical instrument. Write something. Build something. Explore somewhere.
But for chrissakes don't support the nightmare that is beauty contests.
If I had a child, I too would encourage the arts, or whatever they wanted to do...but these don't look like they are going anywhere...so, let's focus on changing the people who seem to want these shows, instead of the girls in them. and again, that is why I was glad to see that these girls aren't fake, plastic Barbies.
The problem is not that Miss New Brunswick will read these comments and be crushed, or that pageant participants in general might not be able to take the (superficial) scrutiny. The problem is a general emphasis on prettiness that makes people who feel less pretty feel worse about themselves.
I don't see anything wrong with competition, it they want to join it that's they're choice. Sometimes good parents encourage their kids to do whatever they want and to make their own choices what they want to join. Deciding you want to join yourself and going through with it is great for yourself esteem much better than excelling any something you don't really want to do. Thats why its called SELFesteem NOT OTHERSesteem.
Sports competitiveness can be equally as damaging and hurtfull to ones confidence and self esteem. At the very bottom in all competitions are the ones that don't feel good enough to do it, don't feel like they have what it takes.
Don't forget these girls have already won their local pagents to be included in this one and are winners just for that. BUT THEN there's the girls that lost the local pagents to these girls...
These are some amazing girls
Beauty contests are stupid and horribly damaging to girls' self esteem.
Parents should encourage girls to play sports. Make art. Play a musical instrument. Write something. Build something. Explore somewhere.
But for chrissakes don't support the nightmare that is beauty contests."
I figure skated for 13 years, played 3 years of varsity volleyball and recently got back from summer snowboard training in BC. I took IB art in grades 11 and 12, have played guitar, violin, clarinet and sing. I write poetry and shorts stories as a passtime. I have built a kitchen/school building in Kenya. I have been to about 15 different countries in the world. I'm going to McGill in the fall for business.
I entered this pageant.
It was an interesting experience and I enjoyed seeing what it was all about and meeting all of the girls. Though I was disappointed in that I felt I was mislead by the slogan of 'Be your own kind of beautiful', I am still happy with myself in that I got out there and tried something new.
I'm not an idiot. I don't have low self esteem. So 6 people out of almost 7 billion in the world didn't pick me. That's fine, I can think of 6 others who would! So would you please stop generalizing us?
I'm from NB, and I hope it Miss New Brunswick that wins the whole competition this year.
I seen her a couple of times and she really nice
I am glad this has started a converstaion and I would like to point out some things.
I always wonder why people attack pageants - but support the world of modelling, dancing, acting etc. No one questions a Ford or Elite model search. Which is only about your beauty, you must be tall and very thin. No one questions the world of athletics, dancers or gymnastics that put kids on very strict diets and weigh them every week. But a pageant, that does not have a height requirement, does not have a weight requirement they say is damaging to self esteem. We want the girls to be fit and healthy and but there is no perfect measurement or weight. We do not measure the girls, and judge them on their actual size. Judges are not even told the height or weight or measurements of a contestant. Girls hips do not have to meet the world of High Fashion modelling standards which is a 23 inch waist and 34 hips. Katie Starke is a beautiful tall girl her but hips are about 37- 38. Which we think is beautiful. She is a Athlete and although she may not be suited for modelling in Paris she is fit and healthy and in shape. We encourage girls to keep active, obesity is on the rise in teens in North America, and we want to promote girls to take a interest in many activies.
A girl in a pageant, has to be well spoken, she has to be able to handle herself in front of a audience. She should be graceful and be able to walk on a stage and capture the attention, but not merely with her beauty but with her voice and personality. But that all comes from confidence within. Girls in this competition are role models, they raise funds for Free The Children, they speak to youth on social issues, they help out at charity events. Yes they are beautiful. So what. You say that we crush them, we parade them. I ask you, how many job interviews will you go on and not get the job, how many races will you run and not win. Life is about trying your best, and learning from the experience. They are judged, but everyone is judged in life on everything. A pageant gives a young girl the opportunity to show her community what she believes in, it pushes her to set goals and achieve them. Pageants create leaders of tomorrow. I won many pageants and lost many pageants, I have cried and been disappointed. But through pageants I travelled the world I went to India, the Philippines, Germany, Seychelles, I met so many people. I am not perfect, I am not Tall, and I was never super thin. I was in shape. One person wrote on the blog that people should encourage the girls to play sports, write something build something. And we do, that is part of the process, we teach girls how to market them self, and go out there and gain support of their communities. Push to have their voice heard. Sports can also be damaging to self esteem. We ask them to keep a blog, attend community events. It is not just walk on stage in swimwear and evening gown and wear a crown. It is so much more.
We could hold this contest call it a search for a Canadian role model and have no crown. No one would think anything of it. But the girls LOVE their Crowns and therefore let them wear it. It gives them the motivation to go out there and do something, make a difference and believe that they can do it.
So all of you that hate pageants, think they hurt the self esteem of young girls, stop watching the show toddlers and tieras, there is no comparison. The parents are not back stage yelling at the girls, the girls are here because they want to be not because their parents want them too. The girls do not wear 40 lbs of makeup.
I would never have had the confidence and strenght to do what I have done in my life if I had not entered a pageant and nor would I be running one today. It takes a lot of courage to go out in front of 800 people and tell them what you believe in. I started this to create leaders, make a difference, and show Canada how exceptional our youth are. The Girls made so many new friends, from across the country, some girls have never left there small towns of under 500 people. Now they have travelled, been on Tv, MTV, Much Music on Demand, They attended an amazing party hosted by Faze media, Went to Midevil times, Went to the CN tower, got to perform their talent in front of their peers, family and friends.
Although some may be disappointed right now, there can only be one overall winner, they must all learn that they are each unqiue, special and outstanding and they are already a winner, they are 1 of only 54 girls who got to represent their province. They will always be a national Finalist of the 2009 Miss Teen Canada-World pageant
That is an accomplishment.
Now, it is time for the public to start believing in them too.
All very well, and I agree with you, but it's not my problem if these girls choose to put themselves on stage. If being judged for their looks (and speaking skills, whatever; how about a debate club?) is what they want, I'm not one to argue. I ignore these pageants, would never contribute my money or time to one, and would never encourage any of my friends or my children (were I to have any) to do this. And that's all I'm really entitled to do.
Then there's the flipside, where internalizing the judgments might scar her and make her resent entering, getting the spotlight or failing at something she wanted so bad. After all, there's only one eventual winner of the pageant.
Like all competitive endeavours, entrants need to balance their self worth with the accolades thrusted upon them or denied to them in competition. It's a double-edged sword.
- if this is really the best way you can think of to make your daughter feel good/confident, you really ought to look at your own shortcomings as a parent. Having never participated in pageantry and being lucky to have escaped modeling, I'm happy to have contributed to my community as a teenager and a young woman through less elitist means, giving me not only self-confidence but also a healthy dose of common sense. Much more valuable.