Pageant News Bureau - Miss America 2007, page 3

Las Vegas, Nevada

Jan. 29, 2007

Adrianna Sgarlata, Miss Virginia

Perfect notes from Virginia

Adrianna Sgarlata is thoroughly American. She's from Virginia, where the seeds of the United States were first planted. But her name is resplendently Italian -- exquisite consonants, voluptuous vowels. It's a pleasure just to pronounce that name. If we could, we would sing it.

She could certainly sing it, and the song would probably make the best ring tone you ever heard. Ms. Sgarlata is an opera singer.

Photos courtesy of Adrianna Sgarlata

Let's be clear here. Opera is not just her "talent" for pageant purposes. It's her passion. She loves Puccini the way some people love the Black Eyed Peas. (Richard Strauss is another favorite.) And beauty doesn't hurt, as we like to say in the pageant biz. She has done some modeling and non-musical acting, which is important, since dramatic flair and stage presence are vital in opera.

You might think Ms. Sgarlata is just doing what comes naturally, since her ancestry is Italian and she has a lovely voice. Indeed, she has marvelous memories of her immigrant grandmother singing in the kitchen.

But the fact is that Miss Virginia didn't grow up planning to be a singer. She was sure she wanted a career in fashion merchandising, until she went to college and "fell in love" with opera. Now she dreams of playing the great houses of the world.

By the way, she didn't start out wanting to be Miss America, either. She tried the Miss USA system first, and she was good at it. But a wise soul told her: "You belong in Miss America." A wise soul with a good ear.

Proud and bold

Sarah French is the adventurous type, a girl who crosses pageant barriers. She crossed from one major pageant system to the other, and from one state to the other. (You might call her a "double-crosser," but only if you wanted to make a really bad pun.)

Yes, now you recognize her. She was Miss Arkansas Teen USA 2004, and she won Miss Photogenic at the Miss Teen USA Pageant. Now, as a student at the University of Missouri, she's Miss Missouri and competing at Miss America.

Sarah French, Miss Missouri

There was a time when Miss America loyalists hated stories like this. One such person, who was affiliated with a local Miss America preliminary, wrote to PNB a few years ago saying that she was "in tears" after we mentioned a state winner's past success in a rival system.

Now the true Miss America fans are proud of these crossovers, knowing that girls who could shine anywhere chose to join the demanding quest for Miss America.

The University of Missouri has probably the best-known journalism school in America, and Ms. French is there because she has her sights on a career in broadcast news. It was the same dream she first had when we met her a few years ago as a teenager.

If Ms. French wins Miss America, a great national injustice may get new attention. She is a registered member of the Cherokee Nation, a direct descendant of Indians who once owned the home of Sequoyah, the genius who invented the Cherokee written language. Her ancestors were forced to leave their Appalachian homeland in the early 1800s by the U.S. government. That horrific event was called the Trail of Tears. The history of her people means a lot to Ms. French.

A blond Cherokee? Of course. Her ancestors sought to live in peace with everyone, to the point of intermarrying with them. We could all learn a lot from them.

Photos courtesy of Sarah French

A beautiful mind

Emily Wills knows what we're thinking.

We don't mean she can read minds. (She might blush if she could read what some guys are thinking). But this Pennsylvania beauty has a professional interest in human thoughts and emotions. She got her degree in psychology and speech communications, and she's looking forward to getting a Ph.D. and becoming a child psychologist and teacher.

Ms. Wills is especially interested in jealousy in young people, how it develops and how it can be predicted. This destructive emotion has caused a lot of kids a lot of sorrow, and she would like to be part of the solution.

Jealousy among girls is legendary, and it occurred to us that there must be a lot of it among beauty queens. We remembered the quote from pageant basher Pamela Lamont that in a major pageant, "the daggers are sharpened daily."

Surprisingly, Ms. Wills said she doesn't see that. She assured us that she has been busy competing, "not doing research," but she's found that beauty contestants don't necessarily get along worse than other ambitious women. And she assured us that "boys can get jealous, too."

Emily Wills, Miss Pennsylvania

Ms. Wills speaks from experience in the pageant field. She's a former Pennsylvania's Junior Miss who pursued the Miss Pennsylvania crown with determination. Her sister Melissa came within a whisker of the same crown three times. And if there's any jealousy between the sisters, we couldn't hear it. What we heard in Ms. Wills' voice sounded like deep affection.

And by the way, we know what Emily Wills is thinking. She's thinking that if things go right, she just might be the next Miss America. And she's right.

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