Pageant News Bureau - Melissa Brouse

The year 2000 got all the hype, but purists tell us that 2001 is the real beginning of the new millennium. So be it. We are always ready for a new era, another shuffling of the cosmic cards. Maybe this time, things will truly be better.

If the next thousand years in the pageant world turn out to be the Age of Honesty, perhaps we have already found the young woman who started it all. Her name is Melissa Brouse, from the Canadian province of Ontario.

We met her by chance at the Venus Swimwear International Model Search in the fall of 2000, and we realized quickly how extraordinary she is. She's so genuine. And if you think being genuine isn't rare in the beauty business, well . . .

It's not that most women in pageants are liars. It's just that most of them have been shaped by a culture that expects the "right" answers. Instinctively, they learn to say what is expected of them. For some reason, Ms. Brouse never developed this instinct, and had no idea she was missing it. "I'm human," she said, a bit apologetically. "That's the only excuse I have."

Ms. Brouse is not a loudmouth or a gossip. She doesn't pour out her heart like a guest on trash TV. But when you ask her a question, she answers it, with no concealment, no spin. It's not her "story" she tells, it's her life.

She grew up as an insecure, slightly overweight girl in a working-class family. "I wanted to be sexy," she recalls. It was a way of seeking acceptance. Sometimes she listened to bad advice and acted sexier than was really necessary. Though it was nothing evil, nothing criminal, it's the kind of thing some girls would never acknowledge. But Ms. Brouse talks freely about it, and she doesn't make phony excuses or blame others.

If you ask, she will tell you about the people she loves, about her job as a beautician, about the poems she writes. She will tell you how she dislikes having a "cute" voice. She will tell you about her big dream, of becoming a real beauty queen.

The only photos we have of Melissa Brouse were snapped on the beach by Mike Fifrick. We asked her for a few others, and she politely declined. "His pictures are the best ones anybody ever took of me," she said, sounding as a proud and excited as a child.

Ms. Brouse is no longer obsessed with being sexy, but we think she's very sexy, with a sweet vulnerability besides. And yes, the voice is cute. If the pageant world doesn't treat this girl well, we don't have much hope for the new millennium.

One more thing: If you're a cynic who thinks this article is a piece of hype, you're mistaken. Ms. Brouse is as we describe her, just a beginner with no clout who never sought any special attention from PNB. Maybe she simply bewitched us. And if we haven't conveyed how disarmingly different she is, blame it on the spell.

A true original