Pageant News Bureau - Chelsea Morgan

Chelsea Morgan didn't look like a seasoned veteran when she won the Miss Teen All American crown in 2002. It was only the second pageant of her life, and she was still a month away from her 15th birthday.

But she had come further to win that particular title than anybody in history.

She started on the other side of the world. She is originally from Perth, a large city on the southwestern Australian coast. As a child, she often spent time with relatives on tiny Christmas Island, in the tropics near Indonesia.

When she was 7, her father was transferred to a job in the United States. The whole family found itself living in a lovely Georgia town called Alpharetta, a suburb of Atlanta. The stars in the night sky were different, the accents were different. And when it was winter in Perth, it was summer in the Peach State.

Ms. Morgan learned American ways quickly. By the time she was blossoming into a young woman, she had formed a dream of being a model and entertainer. She enrolled at the Premiere School of Self-Improvement and Professional Modeling.

Her first big break in show business was a national TV commercial. She played one of several student cooks preparing a chicken. "It was a fake chicken," she says.

In the first pageant of her life, Ms. Morgan won the title of Georgia's Perfect Teen. She felt she was on her way to being crowned America's Perfect Teen.

But in the middle of her intense preparation, she got startling news. Due to logistical problems, the America's Perfect Teen competition had to be called off for 2002. The prestigious Miss Teen All American Pageant agreed to take on the Perfect Teen "refugees" as extra participants. Just as she had once moved from one continent to another, Ms. Morgan now had to leap from one pageant system to another.

When she first thought about the situation, "it was kind of a bummer," she admits. The Miss Teen All American crown was a fantastic prize, one that had adorned the heads of some of the greatest stars of pageants and show business. But Ms. Morgan hadn't expected to be competing for it, and she was younger than anybody who had ever won it.

On Aug. 4, 2002, in Miami, she rewrote the history books. She became the youngest girl ever to win Miss Teen All American, and the first winner who had never competed in a Miss Teen All American preliminary.

Ms. Morgan was also chosen Miss Photogenic. And to top it all off, she won the Grand Prize in the costume competition. She dressed as a giant basket of Georgia peaches (above).

Though she didn't say so, the peaches were fake, just like the TV chicken. But the beauty and talent of Chelsea Morgan are still as genuine as ever.

Photos courtesy of Miss Teen All American

A beauty who wentthe distance

A beauty who went
the distance