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PNB interview, take 3:

Candi Brown 
talks to Patrick Nathaniel Bartholomew III

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Brown: I like the Miss USA system because I really don't have a talent. That's why I never participated in the Miss America Pageant. Well, actually I tried once in Alabama. I even won the Miss Auburn University Pageant, and I participated in the Miss Alabama Pageant. But I was just horrible in talent. I sang and it was awful. So I decided no more of that. I just stuck with what I knew , and that was the Miss USA system. I knew the system because I had participated in the Teen pageant. It was basically the same thing for Miss. I felt comfortable. I just liked it better. Maybe it was because I enjoyed the way that Jim Whitehead ran the pageant. I liked the girls in the pageant, and I knew what to expect.

PNB: You've had a lot of great experiences in the USA system. You've participated in it over the course of many years. You've seen it at the state level in two different states. You've been a contestant at the nationals. What improvements do you think the USA system should make?

Brown: In the Miss USA national pageant, I'd like to see quite a few changes. I think it should be a classier production, like it was several years ago. I really loved Dick Clark as the host. I think having his name associated with the pageant automatically adds class. I don't know if it was CBS or Miss Universe that decided not to use him anymore, or if it was Dick Clark's choice, but he adds class to the pageant. I also don't like the introduction to the swimsuit competition, when they show all of the girls out at the beach. I think it should be cleaned up to look a lot better, because I think it's too sexy. I really think that it cheapens the pageant . I also think that they need a host who is a really strong interviewer, because it's not fair to the girls when they have someone weak who does not know how to interview a girl on stage. It hurts the girls. It makes the girls look dumb, and it makes the pageant look bad. They really need a seasoned emcee to carry the pageant. I think there is room for improvement in their selection of the emcee. I also think that the top 3 question has
been a fluff question, in some cases, a rather stupid question. Like one year recently, they had a question about a titleholder maintaining her weight, referring to the Miss Universe winner [Alicia Machado]. I thought that was inappropriate. I felt sorry for the poor girl who was Miss Universe because she was being humiliated in front of the world. I think they need to use better judgment.

PNB: Let's move away from the pageant world and talk about your education. You've taken an unusual path to your college degree. Tell me about your college education and how you were finally able to graduate.

Brown: I've gone from college to college to college. I don't really know why, except that life's experiences have led me to different colleges, but I ended up at Auburn University. I had a wonderful experience at Auburn. I was there for a while and then dropped out. I hate to call it "dropped out," but I put school on hold while I was preparing for the Miss USA Pageant. Then, after the pageant, I went back for two quarters. Then I moved to L.A. for a year. Finally, I went back to Auburn and finished in June of 1995 with a degree in radio, television and film, with a double minor in psychology and business. Altogether, it took me the equivalent of four and a half years to graduate over the course of eight years.

PNB: Since graduating from college, what kind of work have you been involved in?

Brown: After I graduated, I started lobbying for non-profit hospitals for the state of Georgia. I would go to the state Capitol and talk to legislators. I would try to encourage them to pass legislation that would be positive for non-profit hospitals. That job evolved into an opportunity with Elite Medical Search, which is a national placement firm for people in the medical industry and the biomedical industry. There, I worked as a collegiate recruiter. I would call on colleges and send out mass mailings to recruit students as they graduated from college.

PNB: Have your pageant experiences helped your job performance? Brown: My participation in pageants has definitely improved my communications skills. If a legislator asked me how a particular piece of legislation was going to affect his hometown hospital, I know that I used my experiences in pageant interviews to help me answer any question. I am able to think on my feet and speak with legislators on many issues. I have also been expected to give presentations to large groups of people, and I feel confident in those situations. The pageants have really helped me lessen the anxiety that most people feel in public speaking.

PNB: What are your future plans?

Brown: I've been working on rebuilding my portfolio. I have not modeled in about 10 years. I would really like to get back into modeling in Atlanta. I'm about two or three photo shoots away. I'd like to get back into television and the commercial industry in Atlanta. If an opportunity for a modeling job came up outside of Atlanta, that would be great, but I want to stay in Atlanta, close to my family and close to my new niece.

PNB: In retrospect, what would you have done differently in your life?

Brown: Looking back, I wish that I had graduated from college before I went out to L.A. While I was in Los Angeles, I couldn't really focus on modeling and acting because I knew that I still had to finish my college education. Overall, I wish that I had been a much better student. If I were ever able to go on a speaking circuit to kids in schools, I would emphasize that school is so important. I know that many of them don't feel that way, but I just wish that I had been a much better student and really applied myself, because I didn't. I never studied, and my grades reflected it. I modeled all through high school. My head was always thinking about modeling. I wish that I had studied much more. It wasn't until my last year of college that I really started to study seriously. When I was a senior, my grades were much better due to maturity, time management and understanding the importance of good grades.

PNB: If a girl is interested in entering pageants, at what age should she begin to participate?

Brown: I would encourage a girl to enter her first pageant when she is old enough to make the decision on her own. When I became interested in competing, I went to my mom and told her that I wanted to be in a pageant. I nagged and nagged and nagged until she finally let me participate in a pageant. It's important that the girl wants to enter, and I think it's wrong
for mothers to enter their daughters in pageants so they can live through their children. I think a girl should be a teenager when she participates in her first pageant.

PNB: What advice would you give to a teenage pageant contestant?

Brown: A girl should go into a pageant to enjoy herself, not to compare herself to other girls, but to compete with herself. Her priorities should be to have fun, make friends and be nice, not to be mean and vindictive like some girls can be. A girl should have a great time, really enjoy the experience and learn as much as she can from it. You can learn a lot about yourself and about life. Pageant experiences provide you with tools that you can take into your career and into your relationships with family and friends.

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