Pageant News Bureau - Emily Knight

As you know, PNB staffers are real journalists, not just "pageant" journalists. For most of them, pageant news is a kind of soft diversion from the hard news of war, crime and politics.

But occasionally, PNB staffers report on pageant stories in their regular work. In August 2003, one of them was assigned to write an article for his newspaper about Emily Knight, Ms. Petite International 2003. "From a journalistic standpoint, it was a piece of cake," the reporter said, "just the traditional 'tight and bright' feature. But on a personal level, it was memorable."

We asked him why, and he offered these behind-the-scenes recollections:

I had never met Emily Knight before. Since we were in the same city that day, we decided to rendezvous. There wasn't a lot of time, but it's always good to meet someone face to face if I'm doing a profile.

We agreed to meet at one of the world's most famous media centers. It was sure to be crowded, but it was one place we both knew. She had told me on the phone that she wasn't sure how I looked. I had told her that I would just be looking for the loveliest woman in the crowd. She laughed.

As I approached the building, I saw two girls standing on the sidewalk who appeared to be about 8 feet tall. "Neither of them can be Ms. Petite International," I said to myself. They were really models, of course, with stilts under their long dresses. They were there to advertise a large computer company. I didn't get the tie-in, but they certainly attracted attention.

Photos courtesy of Ms. Petite International

Once I got inside, I spotted Emily Knight immediately. She was taking a break from a modeling assignment, and I never saw anyone who looked more like a model.

She wasn't 8 feet tall, but she didn't seem particularly short, either. She reminded me of Scarlett O'Hara, with hair that was much blacker than I expected. And when she got closer, I noticed her eyes. They were blue-green, and they sparkled like birthstones.

Her handshake was firm, and she looked me straight in the eye as we said hello. She spoke with a smooth, courteous confidence, and with just a trace of a Southern accent.

We talked about her career. She told me she was a spokesmodel, but at 5 feet 3, she was too short for runway modeling. She had tried pageants, but found the same problem. The girls were taller, and she didn't win.

Then she discovered Ms. Petite International. Suddenly she was a pageant star. Now, she said, she was planning to continue her career, perhaps in movies and television. Looking into those eyes, I told her to go for it. And I had to leave.

As I left our rendezvous, I passed the two models on stilts. They hadn't moved an inch, and maybe they couldn't. I yelled up to one of them that I had just met Ms. Petite International. She smiled down politely, but I'm not sure if she really heard me.

The truth is, I rarely notice a woman's height. Beautiful is beautiful. But maybe the pageant world operates by different rules. If it took a petite pageant to get Emily Knight noticed, I'm grateful.

Under Emily Knight's spell