Pageant News Bureau - Miss Teen USA 2004, Page 5

Beauty and good cheer

Elizabeth Carty is as much a pageant fan as a pageant competitor. "When there's one on TV, I always make my friends come over and watch," she said. Now her friends are watching her, and so are millions of other people.

Being looked at by a lot of strangers won't faze her. She has modeled for some major companies, and is probably best known as the "Rooms to Go" girl in a series of furniture ads. Furniture is big business in North Carolina.

Photos courtesy of Miss Universe L.P., LLLP

Ms. Carty is also a cheerleader. She cheers for the Greensboro Bats, a farm team of the New York Yankees. And she's with a competitive cheerleading squad, too.

She told us how all this works. Cheerleaders for pro baseball games are "sort of like a dance team," something nice for the fans to look at. But a competitive squad is, well, competitive. It's not affiliated with a school, and its competitions are as much about athletics as beauty.

The way she explained this subject, we think she would make a great teacher. And that's just what she plans to become. "I had a minor learning disability as a child, and I overcame it," she says. "Now my goal is to work in special education."

Can a teacher be a cheerleader too? That might lure us back to school.

Renaissance girl

Even if she weren't Miss Vermont Teen USA. the irrepressible Maggie Geha would have plenty to keep her busy.

"I'm into a bajillion things," she told PNB with a broad smile. "Modeling, dancing, swimming. I want to be a veterinarian, or maybe a pediatrician. I recently discovered a talent for film editing. I'm going to take an acting class next year. And singing is one of my hobbies."

She's new to the pageant world, but she's as enthusiastic about being a beauty queen as she is about everything else. "Competing in Miss Teen USA is great," she said, sounding almost like a pageant recruiter. "How many people get a chance to walk around in a bikini in front of the whole world?"

Ms. Geha is in love with life, as you may have guessed. And she sounds like she has a serious crush on Vermont, too. "Nothing surpasses the beauty of Vermont. You've got to come see it!"

She's a fairly new Vermonter. She and her family lived in Boston until two years ago. But they traveled frequently because her mother, mezzosoprano Mary Westbrook Geha, performed around the world. The Green Mountain State was a favorite destination. Now it's home.

A lot of things give Maggie Geha enjoyment. But nothing would thrill her more than to take the Miss Teen USA crown home to the place she loves best.

Photos courtesy of Miss Universe L.P., LLLP

Where have you been all our lives?

In a couple of years' time, Allie Gilliland has gone from pageant novice to pageant star. She made top 10 her first year at her state pageant, and she came back the next year to win.

There's something about her that just says "beauty queen." Even when she's not wearing her banner or crown, people look and try to guess just who she is. A lot of pageant insiders wonder what kept her from entering competition earlier.

With Magen Ellis, Miss Texas Teen USA

Photos in blue by Joe Whiteko / PNB; others courtesy of Miss Universe L.P., LLLP

Gosh, folks, give her a break. She's been busy. She won't turn 18 until a few weeks after Miss Teen USA, but she has already earned a year's worth of college credits and worked as a TV intern while in high school. She starts college full time in the fall, as a sophomore.

Ms. Gilliland's dad is a professional baseball coach, and her ambition is to be a sports reporter. "I've played sports my entire life," she says. She may be best known in athletic circles as a competitive swimmer, "year-round for 12 years."

She's also a dancer and a model. We've often heard that working out in the water makes a model more graceful, and she seems to prove it.

If the ocean extended just a few hundred miles inland, Ms. Gilliland would be the prettiest surfer girl in Arizona. As it is, who needs a beach? And who needs a board?

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