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Queen of the hopChelsea Cooley spent part of last year auditioning guys. And she found just the one she wanted. "We're very good together," she says. Don't jump to conclusions, pageant fans. Miss North Carolina Teen USA is talking about her dance partner. Ms. Cooley calls herself a "dance person," which is an understatement. She's a nationally known competitor in such specialties as the Lindy hop and the jitterbug. If it swings, it's her thing. She's even adept at the shag, which we thought was the state dance of the "other" Carolina. "It's everywhere now," she explains. | 
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| Last year, she and partner Kirk Bass placed fourth in the Grand National Dance Championships, and she says it was about as much fun as winning a beauty title. "I was whooping and hollering." Though she's a former homecoming queen, Ms. Cooley is "pretty new" to the pageant world. She was watching the 1999 Miss USA Pageant when she decided that there was room in her life for a little more competition, and she was right. She's planning to get more deeply into modeling, and she sees herself someday owning her own agency in New York. If Ms. Cooley wins the national crown,, the Miss Teen USA Ball is going to see some fancy stepping from the lead couple. Saturday Night Fever in the heart of Shreveport. |
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Shreveport photo courtesy of Miss Universe L.P., LLLP, others courtesy of Chelsea Cooley |
Portrait of JennyMillions of girls would give all they own to have a famous name. Miss Minnesota Teen USA has two. |
| Her parents named her Jennifer Jones, just like the glamorous, Oscar-winning actress of the 1940s and '50s. Her friends call her Jenny Jones, like the woman who hosts the controversial TV talk show where ordinary people reveal their unmentionable secrets and trade insults with the audience. Jenny Jones of Minnesota is not a fan of the show, but friends like to tease her about it. And though she has never seen a Jennifer Jones movie, she wouldn't mind being a movie star herself, if that's where her pageant experience takes her. |  |
| Ms. Jones got the idea of competing in pageants from her neighbor, who just happened to be Miss Minnesota Teen USA herself. Ms. Jones finished as first runner-up in her first try at the state title, and the next year she came back and won. It must be a very pleasant neighborhood. |
| Miss Minnesota Teen USA faces a daily temptation that no girls should have to bear She lives only a few miles from the biggest mall on earth. "I like shopping more than I ought to," she says. She also enjoys skating, horseback riding, cheerleading and modeling. | 
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| At home, she likes spending quiet time with her sister, a "special needs" patient with severe cerebral palsy who can neither walk, talk nor see. "I can sit for hours and talk to her about things," says Ms. Jones, who hopes to be an emergency room physician someday. "The doctors says she can't even understand what I'm saying, but she understands. I know she does." Sisters know. Advice from Jenny Jones In her print modeling, Ms. Jones has portrayed everything from fresh-faced schoolgirls to married women with school-age children. What's the secret of a "young" look, we asked her. "Wear something pink," she said. Photos courtesy of Miss Universe L.P., LLLP |
Sweet and sassyJennifer Hawkins comes from a pageant family. Her two sisters have also been beauty queens. "I guess I'm the boy" she says, in a playful jab at her glamorous siblings. Although she's very competitive onstage, Ms. Hawkins obviously doesn't take the pageant business too seriously. "It gets crazy" at times, she says, and a sense of humor helps a girl keep things in perspective. When PNB first spoke with her, shortly after she was crowned Miss Virginia Teen USA, she talked as much about her recent adventures in trick-or-treating as about the competition. She told us she had gone door to door on Halloween night dressed as a rather sexy movie character. "And I got lots of candy." |  |
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| If there's one thing in the world that Ms. Hawkins actually takes seriously, it's dancing. She was on the dance team in high school, and this fall she will be heading off to college on a dance scholarship. Of course, her higher education will have to be put on hold if she wins the crown in Shreveport. But there's one autumn tradition she doesn't plan to miss, crown or no crown. "Yes, I'll be trick-or-treating this year," she says, "even if I'm Miss Teen USA. It's a must." Well, maybe she's pulling our leg. But if the doorbell rings on Oct. 31, don't get between us and the door. Dance photos by Benjamin Gibbs / PNB, |
 | Nicely doneSarah Jump, Miss Kansas Teen USA, is a standout in track-and-field, which we must admit is kind of amusing. Even though she's a sprinter and a runner, and not really a jumper, the combination of her athletic ability and her name has made for a few jokes over the years. But she doesn't seem to mind at all. Because if there is one word that sums up Ms. Jump, it's "nice." |
| The only thing wrong with that overused word is that it makes her sound bland and boring, and she is not that way at all. She's cheerful and dependable, the kind of girl who is a good friend to have. If you don't mind her beauty (and we don't). She sings in the choir. Her ambition is to become an English teacher. And when we asked her the biggest accomplishment of any of her relatives, she said, "None of them have ever been divorced." If you think all of this sounds corny, you should hear it from her lips. |  |
 | Not surprisingly, Ms. Jump has found the pageant world even better than she expected. "Everybody is so nice," she told us. "None of those nightmare stories are true." Well, maybe not in Kansas . . . Ms. Jump has never been a model. "Pageants are the closest I've ever come." But she looks like a model to us. And two of the women she most admires are electrifying beauties actress Winona Ryder and Kansas pageant star Danielle Boatwright. |
| Perhaps Ms. Jump will enjoy her fling with pageants and then go on contentedly to a career in education. The children of America would be the better for it. But if lightning strikes on the pageant stage, she could find herself famous far beyond Kansas. That would be nice, too. Very nice. Black and white photos by Mark Edwards, |  |
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