Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 3, 1995 TAG: 9507030155
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SHANNON D. HARRINGTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Just ask Andrea Ballengee, who was crowned Miss Virginia on Saturday night after four years of experience in the pageant.
"I was caught up in all the glitz and glamour when I first became involved, but now I see that it is more than that," said Ballengee, who competed this year as Miss Hampton Newport News.
Ballengee said it took a lot of growing up on her part before she was ready for the crown. "Each year, you learn so much. You learn from your mistakes."
Other contestants agree - maturity is a must.
Once you have gone through a pageant, "you learn a lot about the program and you learn a lot about yourself," said Miss Virginia Beach, Amber Medlin, runner-up to Ballengee and a second-year contestant. "A lot of it has to do with how mature you are."
"You have to give up a lot of time," said Miss Appomattox County Festival, Michala Sumnick, a nonfinalist talent winner. The stress level is really high, she said. "A lot of anxiety can really affect you."
Miss Apple Blossom Festival, Stacey Mosely, said she started in pageants when she was 5 years old as Little Miss Chesapeake.
"If anything, I'm harder on myself," she said. "You always feel you have to do better."
When considering that Ballengee and the Miss Virginia she succeeded, Cullen Johnson, who also was a four-year veteran of the pageant, it almost seems that experience is a prerequisite for the crown.
But experience isn't always the key to success, said pageant director Peggy Zint.
First-year contestants, Zint said, "have a freshness that girls coming back don't have. It's an exciting quality."
Zint said girls with the most experience can get trapped in a routine.
"The way they answer their questions, the way they do their hair - every phase of them becomes very programmed," she said, added that the most successful contestants are those who learn just to be themselves.
Top 10 finalist and Thursday night's preliminary talent winner Johmaalya Hicks said that some aspects of pageant competition come natural.
"Some people have more stage presence," Hicks said. "That's a natural knack."
But other things, such as speaking articulately and walking correctly, are things you really have to develop, she said.
by CNB