Hellooooooooooooooooo Miss Tennessee 2011, Erin Hatley!!!

Although the photo with the mug was taken nearly a year ago (shortly after Erin won the crown), we love it!  The mug, the ring, the smile, the hair… it’s soooooooooooo Miss Tennessee!!! 🙂

If you don’t know anything about Miss Tennessee, at least know this much… Tennessee ALWAYS crowns GORGEOUS girl!!!  And because it’s that way year after year, you begin to wonder if they always crown the most beautiful girl in the state pageant simply on looks alone!  But then – if you take a closer look at all the Miss Tennessee contestants, you’d see that it’s not hard to crown a gorgeous girl when you have this many beautiful women to choose from!  Check out their Facebook page here… we dare you to tell us who the ugliest girl is in this bunch (’cause who could tell???)

Chandler Lawson – 2008 Tennessee’s Junior Miss, was Miss TN Top 10 in 2009, 1st RU & Tennessee’s Sweetheart in 2011
Kyndall Convington – 4th runner up in ’11, strong vocalist, last placement in her prelim group
Kristen Mosley – piano, former AL Junior Miss, finished in the top 10 at AJM, first time at Miss TN
Hannah Disterdick – daughter of Miss Tennessee 1982 Desiree Daniels, TN Junior Miss in 07
Cyrena Wages – 1st runner up in 09 and prelim talent winner
Sara Mitchell and Brooke Stegeman won swimsuit prelims in 2011 & 2010 respectively and are in the same group this year

These girls all finished as Semi-Finalists in ’11
Camilla Baton
Leah Beth Bolton
Ivy Depew

Also, rumor has it Sam Haskell will be in attendance Friday and Saturday night… And Laura Kaeppeler will be there starting with Prelims on Wednesday! 🙂

All the best to everyone at Miss Tennessee!!!  Looking forward to your next Drop-Dead-Gorgeous Winner!!! 🙂

MAJ

Miss Maryland 2011, Carlie Colella’s crowning moment happens to be on You Tube… tears and all… and yes, that’s Susan Powell, Miss America 1981 emceeing the event! 🙂

It was Carlie’s first trip to Miss Maryland and she certainly made the most of it!

Interestingly enough… all of Carlie’s runner ups are back for the crown this year… along with 3 other ladies who were Miss Maryland Outstanding Teens!  Given that background, this might be the most competitive Miss Maryland we’ve seen in recent history!  So – let’s get to it!

Maryland History:  They’ve never produced a Miss America, but Maryland is actually a strong pageant state with Miss USA and several other types of pageants.  If this state can tap into that experience, you could see a surge from them!  We’ll always remember Marina Harrison Miss Maryland 2003 who was 3rd runner up to Ericka Dunlap, Miss America 2004 (Marina was also a Miss Maryland USA 2005 and placed in the Top 10).

Best Junkie Research Tool:  Besides this photo above (which is pretty good), the Miss America site has all the headshots of each contestant here..

Who to Watch:  As we said, there are 4, count ’em 4 former State Winners of MAO Teen competing for the Miss Maryland Title this weekend!

Joanna Guy – MD OT 08, 3rd runner up to Taylor Fitch MAOTeen 2009
Hannah Mollerick – MD OT in ’06, 4th runner up in ’10 and ’11, National Sweetheart contestant in ’10
Mary Teal Mulligan – MD OT in ’10
Stephanie Meadowcraft – MD OT in ’09, Miss MD International in ’09, Delaware Teen America in ’06

Others to watch include:
Jessica Bermuez – 1st runner up in ’11,
Stephanie Kelman – 2nd runner up in ’11, Top 10 in 10, 3rd time at Miss MD
Danna Thomas – 3rd runner up in ’11, Maryland Teen America in ’06
Lauren Kolozski – Top 10 in ’11

You never know who’s going to win in states like this!  Could be anyone’s crown to take home!  Good Luck To All!!!

MAJ

From the very get-go, Miss North Carolina 2011 Hailey Best was on our ‘list to watch’ at Miss America.  She’s been on stage half her life, she’s incredibly photogenic, and she was very active with her platform. Then, when we saw her in hot pink heels at ‘Phantom of the Opera’ at Miss America, we knew we’d chosen correctly (Phantom Photo Here!).

Hailey was a Top 15 finalist at Miss America, many thought she might win preliminary talent the night Betty Thompson’s Irish Dance won instead, and she was a Duke of Edinburgh Award recipient.  In fact, this is a fabulous photo of her and Laura Kaeppeler in Birmingham during the awards ceremonies…

Miss North Carolina History: NC has had 1 Miss America, Maria Beale Fletcher in ’62.  We saw Maria in Vegas as she was honored on her 50th anniversary and let me say, she was radiant!  A great reminder that Miss America can/will endure as long as we continue crowning qualified, capable and competent young women!  In addition to one Miss America, we’ll always remember NC as having back-to-back 1st runner up finishes in ’98 and ’99 (Michelle Warren to Kate Shindle and Kelli Bradshaw to Nicole Johnson).

Best Junkie Research Tool:  Check out these videos by a local news outlet (who’s broadcasting the Saturday night finals)… Just click here and you can see  the girls who are comfortable on camera (aka, most likely to be comfortable in the interview room).  You can also see all the contestants on the Miss NC Facebook page here…

Items of Note:  THE JUNKIES ARE HEADED TO NORTH CAROLINA and couldn’t be more excited to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of Miss North Carolina!  We can’t wait to bring you the inside scoop and be there live to see Miss NC 2012 crowned!  The Junkies are PUMPED to say the least!!! 🙂


Who to Watch:  Even though we’re headed to Miss NC, we’d like to make it clear that we’ve never met any of the contestants before… this list is solely based on our own research!


Maddisson Shephard – 2nd runner up in’ 11, prelim Talent winner

Mary Catherine Tucker – 4th runner up in ’11,

Kensley Leonard – probably our favorite video, former OT contestant, Watermelon Festival Queen

Sarah Southard – Top 10 in ’09, 3rd time at Miss NC, sister to Miss NC 09 Katherine Southard

Brianna Hester – NC OT in 07, Top 10 last year, definitely stands out due to her bangs 🙂

Also to watch:
Malloy Honeycutt – Top 10 in ’09 and prelim swimsuit,
Bindhu Pamarathi – Top 5 in ’10
Amanda Sowards – To 10 in ’09 and prelim swimsuit winner,  3rd time at Miss NC

Prelims for Miss NC begin MONDAY NIGHT (which is honesty why we had to get this blog done!)… Mon-Wed prelims, Thursday Teen Finals, Friday 75th Anniversary Gala, Saturday Miss NC Finals!  Whooooooooooooooooooooooooo Hooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!! 🙂

MAJ

Miss Montana, Veronika Ohlinger was one of 9 contestants at Miss America 2012 who had previously been named a State MAO Teen. 🙂

This photo was taken at the Miss America’s Outstanding Teen competition in Orlando in August of 2011, prior to the Miss America competition in January of 2012.  We also did a blog post about it (invoking farm systems) that you could read here… back before Miss America.  The above photo is of (from left to right) Idaho, Minnesota, New Jersey, Texas, Kentucky, Montana, Nebraska, Georgia and North Dakota.

In my humble opinion, Miss America is salivating at the thought of crowning a former MAO State Teen with the title of Miss America 2013.  Again, in my humble opinion, I think states would be wise to crown a former Teen State Winner as their Miss Contestant – if she’s got the goods, this could be the year!

In addition to being a MAOTeen (from West Virginia), Veronika was originally named the 1st runner up in Montana before Taryn Chuter resigned due to a knee injury that required surgery.  Luckily, Veronika was able to take over the crown about 6-7 weeks after the Miss Montana pageant – allowing her to essentially ‘BE’ the queen all year long. 🙂

Montana History:  Another state on the list that’s never had a Miss America…

Best Junkie Research Tool: You can find all your favorite contestant information here… — plus, you can also vote for your favorite contestant!

Who to Watch:

Jill Sharp – 4th runner up in 2010, prelim talent winner

Cortney Bury – 4th runner up in 2011, prelim swimsuit, funky hair, plays the double bass

Alysse Charlesworth – Miss Montana OT in 2009, tap dancer

Junkie Love to Miss Montana!!!  Wishing all the best to all the contestants!!! 🙂

MAJ

Katharyn Nicolle, Miss New Jersey 2011 was a beautiful representative at Miss America this year! If there was a ‘Miss Photogenic’ award, she’d be our pick!!! 🙂

Plus – we also love ‘her love’ of shoes – as evidenced by her own blog!  Check out these pretty pink babies! 😉  The Junkies firmly believe that good taste in shoes will take you far!

Katharyn was also a Miss NJ Outstanding Teen… which we’ll talk about in our next blog (so stay tuned).


Items to Note:  The ever-fabulous Dena Blizzard (Miss NJ ’94) will once again emcee the Miss New Jersey pageant… Dena is a comedian who also has been seen emceeing the prelims of the Miss America pageant.  Feel free to check out her full bio here… One of our favorite moments at Miss America 2012 was when Dena and Kris Jenner were sharing the stage, talking about spanx and Kardashian wigs (I’m sure you had to be there… but the photos can also be seen here…)

Item of Note #2:  While we don’t normally take time to discuss judges in State Competitions, we wanted to note that Miss Oklahoma 86 Mignon Merchant is one of the judges at Miss NJ this year.  She was also Miss OK USA in 83 and a Non-Finalist Talent award winner at MA with her comedy routine.  We found a great article where she speaks candidly about her pageant background here… Well worth the read! 🙂  The Junkies saw her at Miss OK last weekend in the role of ‘David Letterman’ on stage in Tulsa and she was a Hoot!  We’re guessing there’s bound to be stories about her and Dena before the weekend is through!  Makes us wish we would’ve picked NJ to watch this year!!!

New Jersey History: Betty Cooper in 37 and Suzette Charles (the infamous 1st runner up to Vanessa Williams) in ’84


Best Junkie Research Tool:  The Miss New Jersey website has everything you need right here…

Who to Watch:  Truthfully – New Jersey could be won by any number of contestants this year… so without listing 9 different girls, here’s our best picks…

Lindsey Petrosh – former NJ OT – lovely vocalist

Vanessa Baez – 3rd runner up twice (’10 and ’11), Top 10 twice (’09 and ’08), 5th time at NJ


Cierra Kaylor-Jones – Prelim Talent and photogenic award in ’11

Anna Negron – 4th runner up in ’11, Prelim Swimsuit

Lauren Talvacchio – musical theater major, 3rd or 4th time at NJ

All the Best to Everyone at Miss New Jersey!  Never been the same since Atlantic City birthed the Junkies’ Obsession with Miss America!!! 🙂

MAJ