Fast starter

Katee Doland has something in common with Alexander the Great. Both accomplished big things at a young age.

Alexander won every battle he fought and conquered every nation he could find. Ms. Doland won Miss Colorado Teen USA, was a top 10 finisher at Miss Teen USA and became the youngest cheerleader for the Denver Broncos.

Sorry, Alexander, but there's no comparison.

Ms. Doland, at the ripe old age of 20, is already facing a major career decision Should she become a teacher or an actress? She loves children, her mom is a teacher, and she's well on her way to a degree. On the other hand, "I have a dream of being an actress before I get too old."

She means 25, folks.

A self-made woman

Anne Marie Clausen started competing in pageants at the age of 9, and she might strike the casual observer as a "natural" winner.

She's poised, self-confident and gracious, with an effervescent personality that matches her beauty. She's articulate, majoring in speech communications at the University of Minnesota. And she's a modeling instructor with a reputation that stretches well beyond her own community. She is assistant director at Premiere School of Self-Improvement and Professional Modeling.

Seeking out professional trainers, she learned the principles of sound nutrition and exercise. With sensible eating, "lots of cardio" and patience, she lost 50 pounds in three years.

Her hard work began to pay dividends at the 2000 Miss Minnesota USA Pageant, where she was a top 10 semifinalist in her first time as a contestant. Her dream of success suddenly seemed very close, and in fact it was only a year away. She won the 2001 competition.

Ms. Clausen's philosophy is a model of simplicity Take all the advice you can from the experts, but ultimately do what is in your heart. She focuses not on being superior to others, but on being the best that she can be.

Come to think of it, maybe she is a "natural."

Special reporting by Pamela Faye, PNB's Midwest correspondent.

A great communicator

Bre Sakas has an unusual first name. "It's the feminine form of Brian," she says. We had guessed that it was some kind of abbreviation, which goes to show that we should never guess.

She grew up in a picturesque community on Puget Sound. Her mother directed local pageants, and Ms. Sakas herself was a teenage pageant winner.

For the past few years, she has gotten plenty of time on camera, reporting for several TV stations. She is currently a reporter and anchor in Yakima, Washington.

She's also at work on a unique documentary. In 1933, only six years after Lindbergh's famous flight, two Lithuanian pilots tried an even more daring feat. They took off from New York headed for their homeland, but crashed and died in Eastern Europe.

But her yen to be onstage has never waned, and pageants have provided her with another route to success. Anything can happen at Miss USA, and Ms. Sakas may yet find herself making the transition from beauty queen to Hollywood actress. "I wouldn't feel guilty" if that happened, she says with a chuckle.

Photos courtesy of Bre Sakas

Tying them in knots

Kristie Knox is single, but marriage has been good to her. She's a wedding planner.

Say, that rings a few bells. There was a recent movie called "The Wedding Planner," and it was about the complicated life of a beautiful woman. Could it have been based on Miss Kansas USA?

No. The movie was a romantic comedy, and Ms. Knox says that while her work can be comic, it's not particularly romantic.

Do you, Kristie Knox, ever think about your own wedding? "I anticipate it someday," she says, "but in the back of my mind, I'm thinking I may check out acting." If she wants to do both, we won't complain.

Great shakes

CaCe Hardy, Miss Montana USA, has a name that's a lot simpler than it looks. CaCe is a personal abbreviation of Catherine Celeste, and it's pronounced like Cassie.

Ms. Hardy is a former Miss Montana Jr. National Teen-ager. She was also Kalispell's Junior Miss. Though she is well suited to a beauty competition such as Miss USA, she has lots of experience in talent-oriented contests.

You may think of Polynesian dancing as the hula, and she can do that, but her specialty is Tahitian. What's the difference? While hula uses the hands, Tahitian uses another part of the body. "It's hip-shaking," she says. Very dignified, very expressive hip-shaking.

Once we found about her dancing, we couldn't get off the subject. Has she been to the South Pacific. "Yes, it's beautiful." Are those skirts really made of grass? "In Hawaii, there are grass skirts. The ones we use in Montana are mostly plastic."

While Ms. Hardy was doing some pre-pageant shopping at a place called Denver Pizazz, the owner noticed her and asked her if she was somebody famous. When she explained that she was Miss Montana USA, she was put to work modeling on the spot. We have the photo to prove it. (By the way, we didn't hear this story from her. This is one hip-shaker who's very modest.)

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