Pageant News Bureau - Miss Teen USA 2004, Page 4

Hot enough for you?

It's hot in Palm Springs, but it's a dry heat. Isn't that what people say?

Sarah French comes from a town with wet heat. Hot Springs it's called, for the clearest of reasons. People from around the world come to the historic Arkansas resort to dip their bodies into the naturally hot water bubbling up from the ground.

We hear the water feels good, if you ease into it. Sort of like pageants.

Photo courtesy of Sarah French

Hot Springs is also the home of the Miss Arkansas Pageant, the state's preliminary to Miss America. Ms. French has worked as a baby-sitter for a Miss Arkansas official, and one night last year the lady gave a very nice tip -- try pageants. She did, and here we are.

Ms. French has stage experience, but she's never done any modeling outside the pageant business, and she isn't sure that she will. She already has her mind on bigger things.

She wants to be a broadcast journalist, and host a "Good Morning America"-type program. That in itself is not unusual, but she has chosen the University of Missouri to pursue her studies. It has probably the most prestigious journalism program in the country, with a strong emphasis on writing.

Of course, the best college is no guarantee of success, and some great journalists have emerged from obscure schools. But her ambitions are serious. She's not just another gorgeous face.

Staying cool

Oregon is the home state of the reigning Miss Teen USA, Tami Farrell. Does that mean there's extra pressure on Lorie Thompson, who's representing Oregon at this year's pageant? No, we don't think so.

For one thing, there can't be any more pressure than you get from competing in a nationally televised pageant. And for another, Ms. Thompson looks pretty relaxed. She's probably more relaxed than we are.

Her life in the pageant world has gone smoothly thus far. "I kind of fell into it," she says, and she won her state title on her second attempt. But it wasn't success that helped her deal with pressure, it was adversity.

A few years ago, in severe pain, she was diagnosed with a kidney condition. She went through two operations, and they weren't easy. "Half of me wishes I'd never experienced it," she says, "but it changed my life."

It made her want to be a doctor. "I liked my anesthesiologist," she recalls, and in a little more than a decade -- give or take another reign -- she'll be an anesthesiologist herself.

Ms. Thompson lives in Eugene, a laid-back college town. As she looks ahead to her own college days, she's torn between the University of Oregon and the University of Georgia. What's up with Georgia? She spent her childhood in Savannah.

Photos by Joe Whiteko / PNB

A girl named Al

We like Allison Arling's nickname. It's unusual, yes. But there are girls called "Sam," so why not "Al'?

Most folks outside Minnesota had never heard her name or her nickname until recently. "Nobody knows who I am," she says, "I've never been a model." Even though she has danced, played volleyball, run track, edited her school newspaper and sung at the Vatican, she went years before she thought of becoming a beauty queen.

Allison Arling with Miss South Dakota Teen USA

Photos courtesy of Allison Arling

The way she thought of it has to be unique. "I want to be a broadcast journalist someday," she says, "and I was doing research on women in broadcasting. I found out that many of them had been in pageants." (PNB editor's note: We think all of them have been in pageants, but some of them just don't admit it.)

When Ms. Arling entered the Miss Teen USA Pageant as a rookie, she kept it a secret from most of her friends. "I didn't have high hopes, to tell you the truth. I had an old prom dress, and I was doing my makeup on the floor because all the mirrors were taken."

She won, of course, and now she's in the big leagues of the pageant world. No shortage of mirrors, and no shortage of competition. But this time, her hopes are high.

Maybe you're curious about the time she sang at the Vatican. It was last year, and she was part of a choir. But it wasn't a church choir. This girl is full of surprises.

Aug. 6, 2004, in Palm Springs, Calif.