The Feminist and the Beauty Queen

Everyone who knows me (and I really mean everyone!) raised an eyebrow when I told them (usually apologetically) that Hannah was going to be in a beauty pageant. That is, a contest in which girls are objectified and then judged for their looks. As an inveterate feminist, even I raised an eyebrow at myself -- how could I let my beautiful (yes, there's no doubt about that) daughter participate in something that would be so focused on the outside of her: her hair, her outfits, her smile.

Yet, she was so intent on doing it and so sweet about NOT bugging me about it, that I said yes.

And so yesterday, Hannah (or Monahan as she's now known on the pageant circuit) participated in the Cinderella Scholarship Pageant, a "natural" beauty pageant where girls are not allowed to wear make-up (maybe some lip gloss) or have hair extensions or glitzy age-inappropriate costumes. Their clothing should be selected from something in their closet (which meant, of course, that we had to go out and buy something appropriate to put in Hannah's closet as she's really more of a leggings and tee shirt kind of girl...) and they should do their best to just act naturally -- like the young girls that they are. Oh, and they also have a talent portion with a separate crown and sash given for that and Lord knows I love to hear Hannah sing.

So, I said yes.

And Hannah won the talent competition.

She also showed poise, friendship and support to the other contestants. She showed me (in her oh-so-Hannah way) that really being a feminist is understanding yourself and your talents and presenting them in the best light. And she rocked that yesterday.

And, of course she was happy to win, even though I had to tell her that they didn't just give her a trophy for participating, but that she won the talent competition, and qualified for the state pageant!

I won, too. Last night as I was tucking her in she said her four favorite things about the pageant were her crown, her trophy, her sash and spending the day just with me.

So here are some highlights from the pageant. This is Hannah modeling her formal wear. (Yes, I'm a terrible videographer, but at least it's something...)

First up was casual wear. Hannah wore her Easter dress, but we made it casual with the addition of capri leggings and sparkly flip flops. She was very proud of her toes, which I painted the night before with dark red polish.

And here she is in her talent costume. She sang "Tomorrow" from Annie and was terrific. She sang the song holding one of her stuffed dogs, which she named Sandy for the event.

She is wearing a dress that Shelby gave her years ago for dress-up. It was a dress that Grandma Jo gave to Shelby and Hannah thought that was really cool.

(I tried to post the song video, but for some reason it will not load, so you'll just have to trust me -- and the judges -- that she was terrific!)

This was her formal/party dress. This is actually her first communion dress that I sort of dooded up for the pageant. For this one I had to recurl her hair and put a sparkly barrette in it. She looked gorgeous! (In my humble, but totally correct opinion!)

Rob was at the pageant, with his ever trusty Wall Street Journal to keep him company. Oh, and Hannah, too.

Lizzie was there, too, and you can tell by this photo that while I did Hannah's hair FIVE different times on Sunday, I did Lizzie's hair ZERO times.

After the competition portion the girls had to wait while the judges deliberated, so I took this picture of Hannah and he Cindy crown.

And then came the moment of truth! They first named the overall winner (not Hannah) but then went on to name the category winners and Hannah won for talent, which makes her eligible for the state pageant in May. Here she's getting her sash...

And here she is getting her crown:

Here are all the winners (including alternates) for the pageant:

And here is our very talented winner with her tiara, her trophy and her sash. If we decide to go to the state pageant, she will get a blue and white fabric, embroidered sash to wear there.

So that was our day. Hannah had a great time which is really the most important thing ... although I did enjoy the dunkin' decaf I gave myself as a treat for helping out for the day.