What a great and exhausting day! I got to shoot with the incredible Dan Davis with Hair and Makeup by the fabulous Jamie. We went through 4 looks: two headshots, my formal gown, and a fun crazy look. I got a quick glimpse at a few of the pictures and I'm so excited to view them all. I feel I'm going to have some tough decisions. I love being Miss Minnesota!
Besides hanging out with two great professionals that lovingly bicker like siblings, my day was made when a woman in line paid for my coffee! It was her birthday and wanted to do something sweet for another person. So, I passed it on and paid for the person behind me. I love being part of things bigger than just myself.

This morning was better than Christmas when I received the package I've been dying to get. MY CROWN AND BANNER!!!!!  I was squealing like a little kid when I saw it sitting on my counter and immediately knew what it was. The banner is so white without any makeup stains and my crown is so sparkly! Needless to say, it made my day. Thanks NAM Nationals for getting it to me so quickly.
Please excuse the totally "True Beauty" Brittany without any makeup and maybe not dressed in the most fashionable clothes. Hey, it's a Saturday.

Our first parade of the season was at the Clearwater Heritage Days celebration. And no, I didn't actually check to see if the water was clear, but I'll take their word. The three day long festival celebrates the town's history. Clearwater once had the longest Ferry on the Mississippi River and although the Ferry and river crossing are no longer there, the town all comes out to celebrate its heritage.
Holly (Jr. Teen queen) and I had a fabulous time riding in style in a 2013 Ford Mustang Convertible that was just built in June! It's the same model of car which will be given away at NAM Nationals to one lucky girl. Keep the fingers crossed because I loved that car.
The grand parade was at 7pm and the weather couldn't have been any better. Once we got there (which is a whole other hour and a half long in traffic story), I was ready to get waving! Also in the parade were horses, awesome old cars, a crazy band, and a giant shopping cart. Companies, politicians, churches and lots and lots of royalty waved, walked, and threw candy along the parade route. A lot of the city royalty have their own floats they use year after year. We were right behind the Montrose royalty when half way through the parade, their music stopped. Soon I see one of the moms running around back, opening a latch, and half crawling, half jumping inside as the float was still moving. After some quick handiwork, the music started again and all was well. The mom jumped out again and ran around to the front. What would we do without pageant moms? The incident kept me laughing throughout the parade.
After grabbing some dinner at a cute family owned restaurant, my family and I were just about to head back to the car when the fireworks started! We were able to stay and watch the show which was the perfect end to the day.

It's Sunday and after getting some much needed sleep after two appearances the day before, I was rocking my pink accessories at The Hartford & ReMAX Results Breast Cancer Ride. Holly, my Junior Teen, and I volunteered for hours, getting the bikers lunch and welcoming them home after 2 full days of biking. The riders raised over $750 each and dedicated an entire weekend to biking 121 miles. WOW! Holly wants to bike next year and I was a little hesitant until I meet a 14 year old girl that had just finished. Perhaps I could do it!
We had the honor to meet some amazing and inspiring people including Breast Cancer survivors and the founder of the ride, Carrie. For the past 5 years Carrie has honored her mother's memory by organizing this ride which has now raised over 1 million dollars to aid people fighting breast cancer just like her mother did. We were also able to meet cyclist Oz Sanchez who is headed to the Paralympics! Best wishes to him as he heads to London later this month.

Right after, Kayla (Teen) met me at the Mall of America to do a little gown shopping. GLITZ is becoming my second home. Gotta love the sales!

A girl's gotta eat! The annual Eden Prairie Corn Feed is a fun and buttery community event which raises money for The Lions Club. For $6, I enjoyed an all you could eat buttery, salted and peppered corn on the cob...but I had to take my sash off. Giant butter stains on my Miss Minnesota banner aren't that acceptable. I was able to share the amazing food with my sister queen, Kayla. We met two little girls who were so excited to meet royalty and even bowed to us after taking pictures and said, "Your Majesties." How adorable! Now that's queen treatment. We were also able to say hi to Jenifer Loon, our state representative and mom of a friend. But being a queen isn't just pictures with politicians, they put us to work! Kayla and I tried our hand at shucking corn and saw the whole process of how our buttery goodness of corn was cooked.

No time for a quick change! Right from the corn feed I went to meet up with our Jr. Teen, Holly at the Miracles of Mitch Triathlon at Lake Nokomis. We were only able to attend the very end, but I got to meet some amazing kids. One that inspired me was Courtney, a cancer survivor. She is what the race calls "All Stars," kids who have battled cancer or other diseases and come out strong! Courtney was racing today and with her sister, raised $1,048 to help other kids just like her. Now that's impressive.

How do I even begin to blog about my exciting weekend at the NAM Minnesota state pageant? I was able to help out as the new Minnesota Miss alongside the 2011 MN royalty which included the incredibly energetic Princess queen Chloe, the sweet Jr. Pre Teen Haley, the beautiful Jr. Teen Abby, the talented Teen Alyssa, and of course the fabulous Miss Jackie. I've known Abby, Alyssa, and Jackie for years and they were so much fun to hang out with backstage and in between events. In addition, we had the best of the NAM staff on hand to help out and visiting royalty from different states as well! I was even able to meet Charity, Miss Iowa who will be at Nationals with me.

Throughout the weekend, I was everywhere. I was able to help register all the contestants during registration where my station was to sign girls up for bouquets and boutonnieres. Apparently I did so well (thanks to having a job in sales) that the staff had to go out and get more flowers to fill all the orders! I also helped with formal wear rehearsals for the Princess, Jr. Pre Teen, and Pre Teen divisions. One priceless moment of the weekend happened when the princesses had about 10 minutes before rehearsal started. Each one wanted me to watch them to ballet, cartwheels, or spins. Then about four girls were huddled together and I asked them what they were up to. "We want to play duck, duck, grey duck" one told me. I asked them if they wanted to invite the other girls as well and before I knew it, all 25 little Princesses were in a circle playing the game. I would have loved to join, but 5 year olds hitting my head while I wore a crown...not the best idea.

Today was truly a pageant day: working, hitting the gym, meeting with a sponsor, going to a pageant event, and seeing the boyfriend. It was a busy day! Mainly I want to focus on the exciting send-off party I attended for Kendra Berger, the current Miss Minnesota Teen USA. Kendra was my sister queen as the Jr. Teen in 2010 for National American Miss. She's headed to the Bahamas this next week to compete for the Miss Teen USA title. So exciting! I got to see the dress she's planning on wearing for evening wear. It's stunning of course and she's going to rock it.

So one great story of the day: I was chatting with Linda (NAM staff, pageant mom, and friend) for quite some time in Kendra's backyard. We got up to move seats and I look down at my chair and see this big wet spot. I felt the back of my dress and it was wet too. What was going on? I looked over and Linda's chair was wet too. Turns out the fabric chairs had adsorbed the rain that had come earlier that day. Whoops! It was a bit of a surprise. Even pageant girls have embarrassing moments.

Best of luck to Kendra as she competes this next weekend!

I'm here to explain in a little more detail exactly how I was granted the honor of being crowned Miss Minnesota in a week. I've already described the differences between pageant systems in my blog Pageant 411: Miss America vs. Toddlers and Tiaras so you know I'm a queen for the National American Miss (NAM) pageant.
I've been competing with NAM since 2005, so that's 7 years for the mathematically challenged. Any other year I'd be blogging about how excited I am to compete and what I'm doing to prepare. However, this year I already know!
The Miss system in NAM is a little different than the typical Princess through Teen age divisions. At the state level, we have a different way of competing.

In April I sent in my application: resume, photo, and essay. I decided to follow one of the given prompts: How do you define true beauty? This was a natural choice for me since Amanda Moreno, the current National All-American Miss was Miss Georgia Teen in 2010 with me when she decided to start the True Beauty movement. Almost all of the 2010 teen queens took a picture with sashes, a white t-shirt, and NO makeup to show that although pageant girls love to get all dolled up with makeup, rhinestones, and super sassy and stylish outfits, we're also down to earth girls who are comfortable in our own skin. In my essay I was able to incorporate a little background of the movement along with my personal journey with NAM. I think I wrote the entire essay in 20 minutes because it flowed easily. When you're speaking from the heart, the words come easily.

As if spilling my entire progression from a shy 6th grader to confident college aged leader wasn't enough, I also had an extensive phone interview. At the state level for interview each contestant gets one minute with each judge to answer a few questions. In competing for Miss, however, I got to know my interviewer a lot better as we spent almost 20 minutes talking on the phone. What's even better is that I did it all in yoga pants!

So then I waited....and waited. Patience is still a virtue I'm working on so it was very difficult to wait until mid May to find out the results. Early May I was getting pretty antsy to find out how I had placed. What made it even worse was soon all around Facebook I started seeing posts from other states that had found out! Patience I kept telling myself. Each text from pageant friends asking if I knew yet made me even more excited...and nervous.
Finally after I felt everyone from different states had found out, I got the call. You don't know how much a stomach can flip until you see "NAM NATIONALS" pop up on your cell caller ID. Our nationals representative told me I had gotten it! I was to be crowned Miss Minnesota for NAM at the end of July. SO EXCITING! I called my mom right away to share the good news.

However, one thing I was confused about was that the representative asked me if I had gotten the e-mail from NAM already telling me. I hadn't. I would know because I had been checking my e-mail constantly for that exactly that news. I searched my e-mail later that day and in my junk mail I found the e-mail I had been dying to receive. In my junk mail! I quickly told my e-mail that nothing from NAM is junk. How unacceptable! What's even worse is that I looked at the date: 2 days previous. I could have known and saved myself all the nervous excitement of the previous days when all the other states had found out. I guess I can understand how "Congratulations, you're Miss Minnesota" could seem like a scam for anyone else, but I'm so incredibly blessed that in my life, it was just the news I was looking for.

So what's next? I officially get crowned by our current Miss queen, Jackie Bordes, after the teen formal wear competition at the Minnesota state pageant. It's just a week away! Then the real fun (and picture intensive blogs) starts. I'll be doing appearances and heading to Nationals in November to compete against the other state Miss queens for the title of National American Miss. *Happy dance*

It's no secret I'm 100% obsessed with National American Miss and everything it stands for.  Recently I've been creeping on facebook and seeing pictures from NAM state pageants. It's getting me so excited for the Minnesota state pageant! There were just some pictures I had to share because I feel they really capture the feel of the state pageants. From glammed up teens to NATURAL princess competitors, these girls look like they're having a great time!