Miss California HeartShine

I had the opportunity to compete in my first pageant, the HeartShine pageant, and I’d like to share my thoughts based on my experience. First and foremost, I appreciate what HeartShine stands for, focusing on inner beauty, personal growth, and empowerment. These values really resonated with me as I navigated through my first experience in the pageant world. That being said, I found the overall experience lacking in guidance and support. As a first-time competitor, I felt somewhat lost af Show more

I had the opportunity to compete in my first pageant, the HeartShine pageant, and I’d like to share my thoughts based on my experience. First and foremost, I appreciate what HeartShine stands for, focusing on inner beauty, personal growth, and empowerment. These values really resonated with me as I navigated through my first experience in the pageant world. That being said, I found the overall experience lacking in guidance and support. As a first-time competitor, I felt somewhat lost after the competition. There was little direction provided, and I had to take the initiative to research on my own. I reached out to other queens who had more experience in pageants to get advice on how to promote myself and organize my own events, which was quite challenging. During my reign, there seemed to be minimal group events, and I noticed that the Director did not spend much time engaging with her queens. This left me feeling like Im on my own throughout the experience. Additionally, I found it confusing when one of the judges was crowned during the competition, sharing a title with one of the contestants. This raised questions about the impartiality of the judging process. Overall, while I value the principles that HeartShine stands for, I believe there is significant room for improvement in terms of support and organization. I hope that future iterations of the pageant can focus on providing more resources and community-building opportunities for competitors. Overall, what I did like about the Pageant is everyone left with a sash and Crown after the event was over if you did not get the title of a queen, you at least came out to be a princess or part of the Royal Court.Show less