Pageant News Bureau - Jennifer Copeland

When you're young, you like to try a lot of things. And Jennifer Copeland is still young.

She has worked for a great cosmetics empire. She has helped immigrant children adjust to life in a small Southern town. Now she's studying communications, with hopes of becoming a journalist.

For the past couple of years, she has competed in pageants, too. People kept telling her, "You're pretty," so she decided to try her luck in the Miss America system. It was fun, but she wasn't very successful. The only thing she seemed to win was the swimsuit award.

Then she had an idea. If swimsuits were her strong point, why not try swimsuit competitions? They're about beauty, pure and simple. So she slipped out of the Miss America rat race, slipped into something a bit skimpier (actually a lot skimpier) and secured a berth in the Miss Resaca Beach Calendar Girl Contest.

At first, she says, it was an awkward adjustment. When she stepped onto the stage in her little bikini, she felt as if all eyes were on her. The whole atmosphere was a lot sexier. But it was fun, even though she didn't take home the trophy.

Then she did win a competition. She won the right to be a "Venus girl" in the famous swimwear company's modeling extravaganza in Florida. She was soon turning heads on a beach filled with beauties, and photographers were elbowing each other aside to snap her picture.

A lot of people are going to point cameras at Jennifer Copeland in the coming months. But for her PNB debut, she chose the legendary Joe Whiteko. He saw something special in this girl the first time she came into range of his lens.

Ms. Copeland has found her niche in the world of beauty competitions. But do we think she wasted her time in Miss America preliminaries? Not at all. A young girl needs to try a lot of things.

Girl with a gift