Pageant News Bureau - Miss Teen USA 2003, Page 4

Ms. Price is right

Kansas has awesome sunrises and spectacular sunsets. And it has Megan Price. Sometimes the sun hides behind clouds, but Ms. Price is lovely even when it rains.

There are people who claim this young queen looks like "Will and Grace" star Debra Messing. Some say the two look nothing alike. "Color her hair, and let her natural curls come out, and I would have to agree," said someone who has known Ms. Price for years. But really, we can't do a makeover like that without her permission.

Around her hometown of Garden City, Ms. Price is known as the Christmas girl.

As a sophomore in high school, she helped start the city's first annual Winter Holiday Parade. It wasn't just a celebration: There was also a food and toy drive to help the less fortunate. The event is now run by the local Girl Scouts.

Around the state, of course, Ms. Price is known as Miss Kansas Teen USA. She has been in pageants for a few years, and she recently signed with a modeling agency.

When she heads off to the University of Kansas (way back east to folks in Garden City), she will model in her spare time. But she intends to study hard, and she's planning a double major in broadcast journalism and political science.

People who really know Megan Price say that behind that cuddly exterior is a heroic fighter. During her teens, she was afflicted with two different eating disorders. But on her own initiative, she beat them both. And she never put the blame on pageants. (How refreshing.)

If she wins Miss Teen USA, Christmas will come early. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Photos courtesy of Exposure Inc.

Don't stop

Courtney Hejl is not a pageant novice, but she's not exactly a veteran, either. She won the title of Miss Maryland Teen USA after three years -- and three pageants. "The first year, I made top 15. The next year, I was first runner-up. The third year, I won. That was my goal."

That sounds like a sensible pageant strategy: Pick a competition you like, stick to it, be patient, win. But does it work? It does if you are as beautiful as Ms. Hejl.

Courtney Hejl,
Miss Maryland Teen USA

Maybe it wasn't so much a strategy as just doing what comes naturally. Ms. Hejl was never a child competitor, and she's not a model. For years, she was simply a kid who liked watching pageants on television. When the time felt right, she just dived in. And that should be a good lesson to all of you out there with first-time jitters.

Ms. Hejl is a hometown girl. "I've lived in the same house for 15 years," she says. (When you're 17, that's a big chunk of your life.) She's active in every community cause she can find, from blood drives to homebuilding to helping families with sick children.

Ah, but the girl is footloose, too. She has been a dancer since she was a toddler, doing tap, jazz, ballet, lyrical, hip-hop. She works out with her school's dance team, and there are no steps she won't try. "I can't stop dancing," she says with a frisky little giggle.

Ms. Hejl is heading off to college soon, and thinking about becoming a broadcast journalist. "I'd like to host my own show," she says, "kind of CNN meets MTV." We have a suggested title: "Anchor Dance." You saw it here first.

Note to readers: Hejl rhymes with hail, as in "Hail to the queen!"

Photos courtesy of Miss Universe L.P., LLLP

Making waves in the Rockies

Arielle Brown has a nickname in her hometown. It's "La Belle," which means the beautiful girl, if we remember our French correctly. We're not quite sure how it started, but we understand why the name stuck.

We have a nickname for her, too, and we can explain it. We call her "the Montana mermaid." It's because she looks so good and has 27 fish at home. At least 27 fish. (The little creatures move fast, and sometimes they mate.)

Arielle Brown, Miss Montana Teen USA

You're probably saying, "That's a lot of gills for one girl." But fish are not her only pets. She has her own little menagerie, including even a shrew. That's a tiny but vicious mammal, the kind most people would never put up with. So you know this an understanding young lady.

Montana is a big state, but it doesn't have a lot of people, and even pageants often recruit by word of mouth. Ms. Brown tried out for Miss Montana Teen USA because she knew some past state titleholders, and they had nothing but good things to report.

Photo courtesy of Miss Universe L.P., LLLP

Up until then, she was just planning for a career in child psychology. She didn't even notice how heads turned when she walked out in her cheerleading uniform. (Somebody else told us.) Then she won her state title, and life was not the same. "This is my first experience of anything like this," she said of the Miss Teen USA Pageant.

As much fun as she's having now, maybe this fling with pageants will be enough for her, even if she wins Miss Teen USA. She's still planning to attend Stanford University and pursue that serious career.

But there's a beach near Stanford, so anything can happen. The first time somebody spies this beauty wading waist-deep in the surf, there's going to be a mermaid alert.

More on Miss Teen USA 2003 . . .

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Aug. 12, 2003Palm Springs, Calif.

Aug. 12, 2003
Palm Springs, Calif.