LOL!  Good Question!  One I’ve been asked many times over the past several months… And I’m not sure I’ve had a good answer for you until now.  For those of you who thought we disappeared off the planet – My apologies.  Truth is, we’ve had to do some searching to uncover answers for our absence the past many months… In the end, here are three thoughts that are therapeutic to my soul and offer a few explanations…

1. Burn Out.  Within 9 months (Jan 2013 – Sept 2013), we crowned 2 Miss Americas, Junkies posted predictions on all 53 state pageants, maintained a Blog, Facebook page and Twitter feed, PLUS we traveled to both Vegas AND Atlantic City to see Mallory and Nina be crowned live.  Truth is, if this were my full time job, I could understand seasons where everything seems overwhelming… But unfortunately, I don’t get paid for this gig (at least not yet!).  This is my hobby.  And I gave a lot of time, effort and energy to my hobby in a short period of time.

2.  New Job in Real Life.  After spending 15 years building my career in the same industry, I took a new position that stretched me professionally.  Doing so has meant I haven’t had as much time for my hobby – and much of my energies have gone into my new position rather than into eating, sleeping and drinking Miss America Junkies all day, every day. 🙂

3.  Goal Achieved.  You may be asking yourself, “Goal Achieved?  What does that even mean?”  Well – if you go back through the archives of this blog, you’ll find something I write over and over again.  One of the reasons I started Miss America Junkies is because I wanted to help ‘change the tone’ I was hearing from online pageant people.  Years ago (before social media went crazy), information regarding Miss America contestants was super difficult to find.  Even less than 5 years ago, I remember staying up into the wee hours of the night, just to find out who were the winners at our own Miss America preliminary!   There were only 2 or 3 independent websites dedicated to pageants, and very few states had their own Facebook pages – let alone updated websites with contestant information.  Conversely, young women were online in droves – which made the information gap larger than ever!  So what happened?  Well, that void of information was filled with online message boards.  A fine idea initially, until it brought out the worst in pageant followers.  Soon, all I began to see was negativity and bad-mouthing from a bunch of anonymous posters.  That’s why it became my goal to bring faster, more positive attention to titleholders WITHOUT the ugly judgement that often came alongside pageant commentary.  I just thought you could still have fun, provide information quickly, and still ‘be bold’ in predictions without being nasty.

Since The Junkies’ inception, some wonderful things have happened… First, more and more ‘positive’ blog and facebook groups have come into play and are gaining steam!  Miss America Class Updates and Miss America Unlimited have wonderful Facebook pages to keep fans informed (check ’em out!).  I’m floored at how many people ‘live tweet’ now from various state competitions – let alone Miss America!  It’s a HUGE change from 5 short years ago and it’s made a big difference!  In addition, because of our travels to numerous state pageants, Vegas and AC, The Junkies have personally met countless contestants and volunteers who have been quick to offer support of our philosophy and encouraged us with their positive feedback.  It seems YOU CAN have fun, make predictions and enjoy competition without being ugly.

Here’s the deal… My goal was to change the tone of the internet regarding Miss America contestants.  I think that’s happened.  It’s not over – and we certainly aren’t claiming we did it all by ourselves – but overall, I believe our involvement has helped facilitate some good things in pageant-land.  And that – is extremely rewarding. 🙂

So – where does that leave us now?  Well… here’s what I know…

1.  We WILL be posting our beloved “Here’s Who to Watch” blogs on each and every state – starting THIS WEEKEND with Miss Vermont! 🙂  It’s a crazy under-taking, but we’re committed to getting it done 🙂

2.  We’re still considering state pageants to attend this summer… As you can imagine, traveling to these events is another large under-taking, and requires a lot of coordination from the ‘real-job’ and the home front.  We promise to keep each of you informed as we work towards our summer schedule.

3.  Set new goals.  I’m not quite sure exactly what this looks like just yet – but I’m excited about what the future holds!  As we grow, we’ll be sure to include you on all the latest information in the land of MAJ… Again, we’re so appreciative of those who have been a part of our journey thus far and we look forward to where we go from here!

In the meantime, WE STILL LOVE HEARING FROM YOU!  Whether it’s interacting via Facebook, Twitter or this blog, The Junkies have developed some incredible real-life friendships and wonderful on-line relationships with people we would’ve never met otherwise – and we’re super grateful for it!  THANK YOU for the things you do to promote The Junkies to your family, friends or people who are new to the world of pageantry.  That’s how we continue to ‘spread the word’ of positive pageant commentary and continue to accomplish our original goal.

STAY TUNED for the MISS VERMONT blog coming up this week – and the MISS NEW HAMPSHIRE blog coming up next week!  It’s about to get CRAZY!!!

THANKS JUNKIES!!! 🙂

MAJ

First of all… let me say how sorry I am that this post was not completed sooner! 🙁  My apologies to those of you who have been waiting patiently for me to post my over-all thoughts… Let’s just say, I’m getting too old to be witty and creative when I’ve only had 3 hours of sleep!

That being said – Your new Miss America is Miss New York, NINA DAVURULI!!!!

Nina seemed to have everything going for her on finals night… She was polished, yet spunky.  She was approachable, yet beautiful.  Her talent was complex, yet entertaining.  As our first Indian-American to be named Miss America, you may have caught her on one of her TV appearances stating: “The everyday girl-next-door in America doesn’t look like she did 10 years ago – and 10 years from now, she won’t look the same as she does today either.”  Additionally, she is excited about the opportunity to be a role model for little girls who look like she does.

I’ll be honest…  I don’t care what color she is… Instead, here’s what I care about.  Nina is confident, striking to look at, a strong communicator and appears to be extremely genuine.  She could be purple for all I care – as long as she still possessed these qualities which I consider to be necessary for someone to make an impact on others.

So all the best to Nina!  May she become one of our most impacting Miss America’s in history!

Now – it’s time to let you in on our thought process as Miss America week progressed… Here’s several thoughts… in completely random order…

1.  Even though the Junkies went 6 for 6 with prelim winners, we only went 8 for 15 in our Top 15 finalists.  Seems like we have a corner on the “Top Talents” and “Best Swimsuits” but we do not have a good grip on the most consistent ladies on the stage in all areas of competition.  This can be remedied by attending more prelim nights (Junkies only saw 1 prelim this year)… but unfortunately, it’s not always conducive to do so (see ‘real life’ job reference above).

2.  Only seeing one prelim night also kept us from seeing the ‘spark’ in Nina that the judges obviously saw.  In fact, Nina had her On-Stage Question the night we attended prelims and I’m afraid we weren’t able to really pick any of these answers out as “spectacular”… they all sounded about the same in our book.  Had we seen her presence in Swimsuit or her Talent, we might’ve been able to notice the girl that the judges fell in love with. 

3.  I think the final night panel also threw us for a loop… The fact that all of the Top 5 were brunettes tells us that we weren’t in the final night panel’s heads at all.  To only have picked 2 of the Top 5 (OK and CA) is a bummer for the Junkies… one of our poorest Top 5 finishes in recent history (boo).

4.  You’d never believe me if I told you how many times I substituted NY, MN and CA into my top 5.  Frankly, I only expected 1 of the 3 to make the Top 5 – never in a million-zillion years did I think all 3 would make it.  I was wrong.

5.  Never in a million-zillion years did I think NY and OK would be looking at Top 5 finishes THREE YEARS IN A ROW!!!  Kaitlin Monte, Mallory Hagan and Nina Davuruli vs. Betty Thompson, Alicia Clifton and Kelsey Griswold (And prior to that, Emoly West from OK was Top 5 and Claire Buffie from NY was Top 10).  To have 2 states performing that well year after year after year has got to be frustrating for 51 other contestants – but dang!  These 2 programs are proving to be the premier programs in the country!

6.  WE’VE FINALLY CROWNED OUR FIRST FORMER STATE OUTSTANDING TEEN!!!!  Nina was Michigan’s Outstanding Teen 2006 and 1st runner up at MAOT!  Watch for state pageants across the country to crown more OT state winners this year!

7.  Junkies haven’t seen the TV production yet – but to have earned the highest ratings in nine years screams “WE’RE BACK!!!”  WHOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOO for finding the magic formula and producing a show worthy of American viewership.

8.  ATLANTIC CITY!!!!!!  Where do I begin???  As a Junkie who saw her first Miss America crowned in Las Vegas, but who’s completely familiar with the amazing amount of history and tradition that exists on the Jersey Shore, let me say… WOW!!!  There are most certainly differences between the 2 cities beyond geographics… but I gotta give the edge to the quaint and charming city on the sea.  Plus, getting out to the Sheraton Hotel was a huge bonus – seeing shoes, evening gowns and trophies up close and personal was great fun!  Being ‘crowned’ by Bert Parks was another big hit!  And having my photo taken next to those famous “Atlantic City” wooden boats on the beach was icing on the cake!  You just don’t get that in Vegas, Baby 🙂

9.  Even if we went 0 for 6 and 0 for 15, we still would’ve LOVED meeting fellow Junkies!!!  This year was particularly fantastic as so many of you found us and told us what our page meant to you!  We never expected to have that kind of impact on people – and we’re grateful to consider many of you ‘friends’.  PLEASE continue to stay in contact with the Junkies – and if there’s anything we can do for you – just let us know! 🙂

And that’s a Wrap!  Another Miss America crowning is in the books – another woman gets the job of a lifetime and another little girl is currently wondering if she might become the new Miss America one day.  The Junkies look forward to seeing Nina make her mark on Miss America history and will do everything we can to keep you updated along the way…

UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN – make sure you’re practicing your wave… blowing kisses in the wind… standing up tall with your shoulders back and chin up… as we all sing together… “There She Is…”

Thanks Junkies!  What a GREAT year it’s been! 🙂

MAJ