WHOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!  It’s the 10th Anniversary of Miss America’s Outstanding Teen – and Junkies are THRILLED to be on hand for the celebration!  It’ll be the first time we see MAOTeen live, and WE CAN’T WAIT!!!

Also – just like last year, we’ll be making our prelim predictions for the competition – starting Tuesday!

Finally – If you’ll be in Orlando too – WE CAN’T WAIT TO MEET YOU!!!  If you see us, please come up and say hello!!!  We always love seeing Junkies from across the nation and hope to meet as many of you as possible!!!

The competition starts next week!!!  GOOD LUCK LADIES!!!  JUNKIES LOVE OUTSTANDING TEENS!!!

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Georgia’s own Olivia McMillan is Miss America’s Outstanding Teen 2015!!!

Olivia is a Senior at Northside High School in Warner Robins, GA.  After winning the Miss Warner Robins’ Outstanding Teen competition, she lost 50 pounds before her state contest and before being named Miss Georgia’s Outstanding Teen.  At 5’10, Olivia not only has a strong presence, she has a beautiful voice.  She won the preliminary talent award at both GA OT and MAOT for her moving rendition of Nessun Dorma.  Olivia, who describes herself as bi-racial, was adopted by her forever family and also has a brother with special needs.

And Junkies are super excited that she won!

In fact, we were so excited – we nearly burned our dinner!  Here’s a quick play by play of our evening shortly before Olivia was crowed…

– Pageant well underway… The Top 10 complete evening wear and OSQ.  There seems to be some ‘filler’ at this point in the pageant, so I begin dinner…
– Hmmm… I haven’t seen my son for 4 1/2 hours (silly kid forgot to ‘check in’).
– Update social media, text friends who aren’t able to watch the stream… and try to remember all the ingredients for tonight’s feast.
– Back to the webstream when they announce the Top 5 finalists… Originally, I wrote down 5 names and went 4 for 5, but switched one girl out at the last second.  Bummer! Gotta stick with my gut.
– Back to dinner – time to brown the meat…
– Back to wondering where my son is and if he’ll remember to come home on time…
– Back to my computer to see Leah Sykes’ farewell… She’s so lovely…
– Back to texting friends who aren’t able to watch the show online and are looking for an update…
– Ok – live stream announcement time…
– Olivia McMillan is announced as the new MAOT!!!
– Took 17 photos – trying to get one worthy of posting before the stream goes out and Olivia is done with her “walk”…
– Junkies find 1 worthy photo and begin uploading to multiple social media outlets…
– Do I smell something burning…?
– Oh Crap!
– Good news!  The meat’s not “too bad”… it’s just ‘well done’ and somewhat salvageable…
– My son’s still not home… He’ll never know the difference anyway 🙂

If you knew me, you’d realize that “cooking dinner” is a relatively new experience for me… However, “burning dinner” isn’t a new experience at all… 🙂  But enough about me – let’s get back to MAOT!

Here’s a full summary…

Miss America’s Outstanding Teen Top 5
WINNER – Olivia McMillan – Georgia (Top Vocalist Award)
1st Runner Up – Lexie Perry – Tennessee (Instrumentalist Award)
2nd Runner Up – Morgan Green – Alabama
3rd Runner Up – Casey Shepard – Virginia
4th Runner Up – Morgan Holen – Nebraska (Dancer Award)

Remaining Semi-Finalists
Florida (Dancer Award) – Michigan – Virgin Islands (People’s Choice) – Pennsylvania – Texas

Top 12 Finishers
Colorado and North Dakota (People’s Choice and Instrumental Award)

Teens in Action Award (aka – Quality of Life Award at Miss America for platform work)
Nevada and New Jersey

Non-Finalist Interview Award
Arkansas and New Jersey (tie)

Non-Finalist Gown Awards
Oklahoma and Washington (tie)

Non-Finalist Talent Awards
Utah and Wisconsin (tie)

Miss Congeniality
Nevada

CONGRATULATIONS LADIES!!!

And now – a few Junkie thoughts… in random order…

1.  Junkies only go 5 for 12 tonight—- but strangely enough, all 3 of our ‘bubble states’ also make the Top 12.  THIS GOES TO PROVE SOMETHING IMPORTANT….  The last time we did really well when it came to semi-finalist predictions, it was because we saw 2 nights of preliminary competition at Miss America, back in Las Vegas.  One night just doesn’t seem to be enough for us – and obviously, not seeing ANY prelims for MAOT hurts us as well.  There’s only so much you can learn from online research instead of being there live.

2.  While it’s ‘relatively easy’ for Junkies to predict Prelim Winners – if you wanna become a semi-finalist, there’s a lesson here to learn… You simply MUST be well-rounded in ALL categories!  It’s not enough to win a prelim – 2 prelim winners didn’t even make the Semi-finals… and 2 girls made the Top 5 who didn’t even win a prelim!  Junkies may be able to predict your strength – but it’s your ability to excel in ALL CATEGORIES that makes you a semi-finalist (which is certainly more important than our ability to pick you out of a crowd!).

3.  On our original prediction list, Junkies picked 2 out of the Top 5 (GA and AL).   We actually picked one additional girl who finished in the Top 5, but switched our choices right before posting the blog (Ugh! Must stop second guessing ourselves).  We also posted a tweet sometime before the Top 5 announcement was made… In that tweet, we mentioned GA was our pick to win – she just had that ‘something special’ about her when she answered her question on stage.

4.  Olivia is the first MAOT with a “strong story” in quite a while… And she certainly isn’t the “typical pageant” type of winner!  She still fits the mold of everything we listed in yesterday’s post – Impressive Talent, Significant Beauty, Confident Communicator, Lots of Poise… But she also brings something else to the table… Call it, “The Mallory Factor”. 🙂  Junkies feel like Olivia is oh-so relateable – like Mallory Hagen, Miss America 2013!  She’s a “real teen” who has an awesome story to tell and as she said in her on-stage question, she can relate to nearly anyone because of the many facets of who she is (as we told you above).  No doubt, Olivia will represent MAOT in a phenomenal way and we can’t wait to see her year unfold!

AND THERE YOU HAVE IT!!!  CONGRATS to all our contestants and their placements!!!

As always – BIG THANKS for playing along and for taking this inaugural journey with us… Predicting MAOT was a whole lot more fun than we originally thought – and a great way to “prime our pump” when it comes to Miss America!  There’s not much time between now and September 14th!  Be sure to start your research now so you’ll be ready when prelims begin in Atlantic City!  Ready or Not… HERE IT COMES!!!

Congrats Again Teens – Junkies are super proud of each and every one of you!!!

‘Til Next Time –

Founding Junkie

OMG.

Today is the day we crown a new Miss America’s Outstanding Teen!!!  Junkies have been climbing the walls ALL DAY LONG trying to get a grip on how we’re going to narrow our list of 53 incredible Outstanding Teens down to only a few semi-finalists who will compete for the crown tonight!!!  We may make this look easy – but I gotta tell you, Junkie intuition can only take you so far… Today’s the day where the rubber meets the road and a high heel meets the hard-wood (or something like that). 

But before we give you our predictions, we want to take a few moments to honor Leah Sykes – Miss America’s Outstanding Teen 2014 who is giving up her crown tonight!

Junkies saw Leah sing during the Miss Minnesota program and were BLOWN AWAY by her talent!  SERIOUSLY!  Leah’s vocals were some of the best we heard at the whole pageant – and some of the best we’ve ever heard from someone her age!  Musicians might say she has a special ‘tone’ or a unique ‘quality’ about her voice – it comes across as original and authentic, seasoned and pure.  She’s certainly gifted – and has obviously worked hard to ‘hone her talent’ over the years.

It’s our understanding that Leah will begin her Freshman year at Belmont University this Fall in Nashville, TN pursing a career in the music industry.  According to an article in the online edition of the Orlando Family Magazine, Leah says she has grown immensely over the past year as MAOT 2014 – and she encourages all teenagers to spend time giving and investing in the lives of others.

          “Find an organization that’s really personal to you and that you can really connect to,” Sykes said. “Volunteering has really become an important part of my life. I can’t believe I went 16 years without it in my life.”

We know Leah’s mark has been made on MAOT and the next titleholder has a lot to live up to!

And while we’ve never had the chance to see any other Outstanding Teen national winner perform, Leah most certainly gave us a glimpse of the kind of young woman who typically wins the crown…  Especially when we study the last few national winners, we notice they all have a few things in common…

Impressive Talent
Significant Beauty
Confident Communicator
Lots of Poise

Those are the thoughts we’re keeping in mind when we choose our Top 12.

BUT BEFORE WE GET THERE… We just want to remind you of some super important tid-bits…

 – If we don’t choose your favorite girl, it’s not personal.  Trust me – there are oodles of fabulous girls at MAOT this year – Junkies are beyond impressed with the state winners from each organization and the reason it took us so long to post this blog is because we spent so much time going back and forth with who would make the list!

– Here’s what we always say – JUNKIES AREN’T PERFECT!  Just because we don’t name your girl – it doesn’t mean she won’t make the semi-finals and it certainly doesn’t mean she won’t win!  It only means, we aren’t perfect.  Remember – we didn’t see a thing this week!  All of our research has been done online – We’re not about to bet the house on perfection tonight!  Anything can happen 🙂

– Because the MAOT contestants are without their phones this week – we’re guessing the only ones reading this blog right now are people who AREN’T competing (families, friends, etc)!  So – if your state makes our list, we hope she proves us right!  And if your state doesn’t make our list, WE HOPE SHE PROVES US WRONG!!! 🙂  Junkies only want the best for each of the young women competing tonight… May this experience be one of the BEST THINGS that ever happened to each and every one of them!!! 🙂 

With all these thoughts in mind, here’s our Top 12 list for MAOT 2015!!!

Junkies Top 12 List for MAOT
Alabama
Georgia
Oklahoma
Connecticut
Ohio
Washington
Texas
New Hampshire
Florida
South Carolina
California
Tennessee

Bubbles (or if they choose a Top 15… Junkies keep getting conflicting reports)…
Nebraska
North Dakota
Virginia

And while it’s insanely difficult to pick a Top 5 – Here’s what we’ve got…

Junkies Top 5
Alabama
Georgia
Oklahoma
Texas
California

Winner
Oklahoma

THAT’S A WRAP!!!  GOOD LUCK LADIES!!!

Founding Junkie 🙂

HERE WE ARE – WE MADE IT!!!!

The final night of MAOT Prelims has taken place and two more winners have come to the table!  Who were the winners last night?  Let’s get to it!

TALENT – NORTH DAKOTA – an incorrect pick
The Junkies’ dream of the perfect prelim prediction post was foiled by last night’s talent winner – Raghen Lucy 🙂  Just for the record – nobody’s even mildly upset at Raghen for spoiling our streak… How could you be when she performed a lovely Piano solo to Pirates of the Caribbean 🙂  She’s also the very first Outstanding Teen from the state of North Dakota to bring home a prelim win in any area of competition!!!  Junkies say BRAVO RAGHEN!!!  BRAVO!!! 🙂

GOWN/OSQ – OKLAHOMA – a correct pick!
This is the second year in a row that Oklahoma has won the Gown/OSQ award at MAOT… Joei Whisenant certainly has that “something special” that’s so attractive and sweet!  I don’t know how they do it – but Oklahoma has the “biggest bench” we’ve ever seen in pageantry!  LOL!  If you don’t understand that reference, it basically means OK consistently sends strong girls, year after year after year, in both their Teen and Miss program.  Think of your favorite college basketball or football team – when one class graduates, the best programs are able to put together another winning year because ‘the bench’ (the players coming up in the system) is so strong.  Congrats OK!  You may just have a winner on your hands in Joei Whisenant…

And there you have it!  Junkies finish 5 for 6 in our first year ever predicting Miss America’s Outstanding Teen preliminary winners – and we’re thrilled!  NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS did I think we’d do so well in our first year out (*big sigh of relief right here)… And who knows… Maybe Junkies will take time in 2015 to see MAOT in person!?!

In the meantime – our work continues… and the HARD PART has just begun!  Junkies need to put together a finalist list for Saturday night!  You think prelim predictions are hard?  Try picking out 5/10/12/15 semi-finalists out of all these amazing teens!

*Side Note – does anyone know how many semi-finalists will be chosen (lol!)?  Again – it’s our first year at this whole Teen thing… hate to select 15 states only to learn there’s only 12 chosen… HELP PLEASE! 🙂

We expect you’ll be doing the same!  You can always “play along” by selecting your own list of semi-finalists and compare them to ours!  We’ll post our list sometime before the pageant begins on Saturday night!

Oh – and you can also live-stream the pageant on Saturday for a $10 donation… Here’s the information and the link to the stream! 🙂

HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE!!! 🙂  Have a Fabulous Weekend!!!

Founding Junkie