Pageant News Bureau

From the time she was a child, Jane Kim fantasized about being Miss Teen USA. For eight months -- from October 1998 to June 1999 -- she dared to think that her fantasy might come true. She was Miss Georgia Teen USA, getting ready to compete for the national title. The perky princess from the Atlanta suburbs was living a life that seemed like a movie, and she was the star.

Miss Georgia Teen USA, with first runner-up Keely Wright at left.
Photo by Joe Whiteko

Then, two months before her big chance on network television, the dream was canceled for good. She learned she wasn't eligible for the title she held, or for the title she wanted. She meekly gave up her Georgia crown. Jane Kim, it turns out, is not an American. She grew up in the United States, and she always thought of herself as an American. But legally, she is still a citizen of South Korea, the country where she was born.

The embarrassing thing for Ms. Kim is that she never realized she was not a U.S. citizen. She was too young to exercise the special rights of citizenship, and otherwise the question just didn't come up.

Even when she visited South Korea to compete as a model, she thought she was there as an American. When she filled out her application to compete in the Miss Teen USA system, she listed her nationality as American. It never occurred to her to say anything else.

"The mistake was totally my fault, and it was so foolish," she says. "I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I found out what I had done." In fact, Ms. Kim admits, she did a little more crying than laughing.

Jane Kim in Los Angeles, on the way to compete in Korea.

But most of her tears weren't for herself. "I felt that I let people down," she says, recalling that awful June day when she found that all her work had been for nothing. "My state director, the national pageant, my parents . . ." Ms. Kim adores her parents, a hard-working immigrant couple who confidently put their signatures on her application even though their native language is not English. They counted on their daughter to get the answers right.

But Jane Kim still has opportunities to make her parents proud. She's jumping right back into modeling and pageants. In July, when she had planned to be making her final preparations for Miss Teen USA, she will be in New York competing in an international model search. "I'll be representing Korea," she says, smiling through misty eyes and sounding just like a brave little girl with a broken heart.

NOTE TO READERS Be watching for more coverage of the Miss Teen USA Pageant.

To my fellow Americans . . . sort of

Maybe you've heard of me. My name is Jane Kim. I was born in Korea, but I grew up in America, and I grew up thinking I was American. It was only after I won a pageant title that I found out I wasn't a U.S. citizen. I had to give up my crown.
It's embarrassing to find out something so personal about yourself in front of the whole world. I felt like the football player who ran the wrong way and scored a touchdown for the other team. I didn't want to be remembered as just a girl who made a very public mistake.
But the Fourth of July is here again, and it has helped me put my own little problem in perspective. I always enjoyed the Fourth, during all those years when I was celebrating as an American. But now that I'm a "foreigner," I find that this holiday means even more to me.
The people we honor on the Fourth of July didn't have much to celebrate when they declared American independence. They were at war. They were wanted by the British. They didn't really have a country yet. All they had was an idea.
Today, I can identify a little more with those people, even though I'm a very unimportant person compared to them. Suddenly, I don't have the country I always thought was mine. I'm on the outside looking in. I can't simply be an American, I have to become one. But that makes me appreciate even more what it means to belong to this great country.
I used to dream of reigning over the USA, and now I just want to be part of it. It will take me time, but I will do it. Until then, I want to wish all you Americans a happy Fourth. Be grateful for your country.

A bad break
for a young beauty

Most photos courtesy of Jane Kim

Miss Georgia Teen USA, with first runner-up Keely Wright at left.
Photo by Joe Whiteko

To my fellow Americans . . . sort of

A bad breakfor a young beauty

Most photos courtesy of Jane Kim

Miss Georgia Teen USA, with first runner-up Keely Wright at left.Photo by Joe Whiteko

To my fellow Americans . . . sort of

A bad break
for a young beauty

Miss Georgia Teen USA, with first runner-up Keely Wright at left.
Photo by Joe Whiteko