Growing up as part of a pageant family is an awesome thing… Doesn’t matter if it’s a local, state, or a national titleholder – the generational influence that a pageant titleholder can have, is strong. As is the case with Stephanie Sterui, Miss Hawaii 2014.  Stephanie’s mom was a former Miss Maui – and Stephanie says she she was drawn to the crown growing up.

However, she didn’t enter a pageant until she was looking for a chance to earn scholarship money and discovered the personal benefits she would likely receive from pursing the crown. “It’s not about competing with everyone around you; it’s about competing with yourself and always working to better yourself,” she says. “If somebody says you can’t do it, brush it off your shoulder and keep going.”

Stephanie is a big advocate for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) – She’s been involved with Robotics clubs, Science Olympiads and Math Counts.  Upon graduation, her goal is to become a Veterinarian.  By the way, she also speaks German and played roller hockey on her brother’s team for six years (earning the Most Valuable Goalie award!). Junkies love multi-faceted state winners – and in our minds, Stephanie can do pretty much anything she wants.  All the Best Stephanie – Congratulations for making the island of Kauai proud 🙂

Here’s a little inside scoop for you… Out of 29 contestants, 25 girls are new to the Miss Hawaii stage – HOLY COW!!!  That’s almost unheard of in most states!  Who do Junkies think will win Miss Hawaii?  That information was released earlier this week in the Junkies Newsletter!  Click here to sign up for the Junkies Newsletter and we’ll send you our latest predictions!

GOOD LUCK LADIES!!!  JUNKIES LOVE HAWAII!!!

#BigJunkieLove

Miss Rhode Island 2014, Ivy Depew certainly made headlines at Miss America… Although, not exactly in the way she might have anticipated!

As all the contestants gathered on stage after the first night of preliminary competition, Ivy fainted.

The contestants were quick to form a shield around her – thus keeping the press from any unflattering photos and allowing medics to aptly take care of her.

In interviews after the event, Ivy said she felt fine during the first night of preliminary competition – but that she felt a little “off” walking out on stage to learn who would be named the prelim winners for that night.  She said she remembers talking with Miss PA, Amanda Smith for about 20 seconds, but then she blacks out.

Turns out, Ivy wasn’t de-hydrated or overheated, but she had a rare type of sinus infection that was undiagnosed.  In an interview with beautypageantnews.com she said,

“It’s not the typical sinus infection when you get the runny nose, the drainage and coughing,” she said. “It’s actually harder to get this type of infection, because it is located up in your forehead, behind your skull. It pushes on your optical nerve, your cranium, and your brain. Usually, it’s diagnosed [only] when something extreme happens. The pressure in my head caused me to lose consciousness.”

Thankfully, with the help of a few antibiotics, Ivy was back on stage the next night and able to complete her areas of competition on the Miss America stage.  After six years of state competitions, I’m so glad she was able to finish the competition!

Plus, her dad was the winner of the “Hot Dad” competition!!!  How can you beat that???  ***If you missed the Hot Dad competition, I swear you missed half your life!  It was hilarious!  Google it!!! 🙂 ***

As a graduate with her Masters in Public Affairs from Brown University and a possible political career in the future, we expect big things are yet to come for Ivy!

And – just as a quick side-note – Junkies actually met Ivy on the beach in Atlantic City the year before she became Miss Rhode Island!  It’s a funny story – I knew who she was when I saw her (gorgeous red hair and all), but the person I was with, didn’t!  That’s when my Junkie friend tried to introduce me to the 1st RU from Rhode Island and I said, “Yes… This is Ivy Depew…”  LOL!  You just never know when the Junkies might be lurking on a beach near you!

And now – who are the ladies we’ve got our eyes on when it comes to Miss Rhode Island 2015?

To see our Top 5 picks for Miss Rhode Island 2015, click here – then scroll down to sign up for the Junkie Newsletter!  We’ll forward our most recent Newsletter to all NEW Junkie sign-ups, once per day (so, if you don’t get it today, you’ll be sure to get it tomorrow!).

GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE AT MISS RHODE ISLAND!!!

#BigJunkieLove