One of the biggest pageantry events held annually is the Miss America pageant; not only is it practically every pageant girl's dream to make it to that stage, but it's also a chance for the rest of the country to participate.
Being a pageant girl myself, I am definitely aware of the misconceptions that many people tend to have about pageantry and those who pursue it. I still cringe at that Miss Teen USA onstage question debacle, but that's a rather extreme case.
The purpose of the onstage question portion of the pageant is not to express your opinion (sometimes on rather controversial topics) and be judged on it, but rather to
convince your audience of why you hold firm in your beliefs. In the same fashion, I'd like to tackle a few of the biggest pageant misconceptions--along with the realities of those situations.
1. Pageant girls have low IQs.
If you pay close attention during the swimsuit and evening gown competitions, you'll be able to hear and see some facts about each of the contestants. By doing so, you might have discovered that Miss Hawaii USA studied at Oxford University when she was sixteen, or that Miss America 2015 is trilingual. The majority of pageant girls have very high GPAs (in fact, the Miss America's Outstanding Teen Pageant gives an award to the girl with the highest GPA). I think we can all agree that the expression
"intelligent pageant girl" is not an oxymoron.