Pageant Victor’s Secret: Fun

Alison Chisholm missed most Junior Miss program practices last winter. She borrowed a formal dress from a former contestant. She really wasn’t prepared on pageant day, but she figured she’d make it fun.

Her attitude toward the Junior Miss program had softened as she met girls she liked. But she still believed she wasn’t the “type” to win more than an academic scholarship.

“I always thought it was for prissy girls who wear a lot of makeup and parade around on stage,” she says, unembarrassed to admit that she once was among the program’s staunchest naysayers. “Maybe I can change that image.”

She won and she admits it’s changed her. But she likes the changes.

In her backward ballcap, sleeveless T-shirt and huge athletic shoes, Alison hardly looks like a Junior Miss. Dark hairs shoot wildly like plant tendrils from under her cap and her Dad’s shorts bag on her thin legs.

She can’t wait to stuff in a berry milkshake before a demanding soccer practice that will leave grass stains on her knees and sweat stains everywhere else.

“I glisten, I don’t sweat,” she says, pulling herself into a regal posture that clashes comically with her appearance. She laughs and sinks close to her snack again. Only the heartless could suppress a smile.

This 17-year-old girl is Coeur d’Alene’s Junior Miss, but no spoiled princess.

Junior Miss distances itself as much as possible from the beauty pageant circuit. The program promotes scholarship, talent, fitness, presence and composure, and interview skills.

Unlike most pageants, Junior Miss charges no entry fees and awards no prize money. Scholarships, yes, but no cash.

Still, Junior Miss can’t quite shake the cheesecake pageant reputation that often stops athletes and scholars like Alison from entering.

“‘I’m not the Junior Miss type,’ I said at first,” she says.

Her best friend talked her into attending the program’s informational meeting. Alison was on a Parks and Rec basketball team and in club soccer. She took piano lessons, and her slate of honors classes at Lake City High saddled her with hours of homework every night. She had no time to play model.

But the meeting intrigued her. The spokesman emphasized scholarship. Alison decided to enter. Her mother was surprised, but supportive.

“I had no idea what Junior Miss was,” says Robin Chisholm.

Alison didn’t expect to win, so she arrived at the contest fairly relaxed. Only the talent competition unnerved her.

“I’d always had that fantasy of singing and playing the piano on-stage, even though singing really scares me,” she says. “It was something I felt I had to do.”

Alison is one of those admirable people who refuses to stay in her comfort zone. That’s why she entered the contest and probably why she won.

“The program’s really successful at recognizing that there’s no cookie cutter cut-out of who’ll succeed as Junior Miss,” says Kerri Thoreson, who directs the Post Falls Chamber of Commerce.

“They don’t want conformists,” she says. “They want someone who’s comfortable with herself.”

A family videotape of Coeur d’Alene’s pageant recorded Robin’s surprise as Alison collected one scholarship after another on her way to winning.

“She’s non-conforming, outspoken, independent,” Robin says, with complete approval. “I thought they’d see they’d have trouble controlling her. But they seem to appreciate that, and I was amazed.”

The win committed Alison to parades, ribbon-cuttings and the state Junior Miss pageant, an experience she dreaded.

But at the competition in Pocatello last month, Alison found herself among a group of girls as goal-oriented and persevering as herself.

Most, like Alison, dreamed of futures at think-tanks like Stanford University.

Alison finished in the top 10, won another scholarship and returned home to the comfort of her soccer uniform and biology books.

She’s not interested in any more pageants, but she’s changed her mind about Junior Miss.

“People are surprised when I tell them I’m Junior Miss. I don’t wear makeup or curl my hair. I’m not girlie. People have the wrong image.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo