For many girls, the pageant life comes naturally. Makeup, heels and ball gowns fill these girls lives.  Most ladies have been entered into pageants by their parents since childhood. For sophomore Mauriah Turner, this was not the case. The Miss Greensboro Pageant is her first.                                             

“I was interested in competing in pageants when I was little, but I never did because I didn’t know North Carolina had them,” Turner said.

To enter the 2018 Miss Greensboro Teen Pageant, contestants must be nominated by a member of the pageant board. Nominations remain anonymous. Turner received an email on Jan. 25 notifying her of her acceptance into the competition.

She learned that she would need to raise $600 to participate. Turner also attended a training session on Feb. 11. The training consisted of learning to walk in heels,  pageant protocol, and how to answer interview questions.

This beauty pageant is not about the typical glitz and glam. The main goal of the Miss Greensboro Pageant is to allow young women to grow in self-confidence and meet other girls interested in similar hobbies.

According to the Miss Teen Pageant website, judging is based on a young lady’s participation in the personal interview, casual wear modeling, and formal wear, modeling in addition to onstage questions. The judges look for poised, confident and pleasant young ladies for winners.  

“I’m not nervous about being judged, but I just feel like it could be interesting how someone’s opinion determines everything,” Turner said before the pageant.“No matter what it will be fun.”

The judges will also look for each girl’s unique talents and hobbies. YouTube is an outlet Turner uses to express herself. She created her own channel, “Mauriah’s World,” three years ago. Turner blogs, makes DIY videos and reviews books.

“I started the DIY channel because I had a lot of ideas and wanted to show people how to make things,” Turner said.

Although Turner is no longer active on her YouTube page, she is still very interested in creative arts.

“When I got to high school, I found out that I like to write more than doing my channel,” Turner said. “Random lines will pop into my head during class, so that’s my inspiration to write short stories, poems, raps, songs and novels.”

These unique talents that Turner showcases set her apart from the other contestants.

Turner competed on Feb. 25 in Charlotte. She was in the 13-to-15 year old division. Along with 59 other contestants in her division. The competition consisted of beauty and an onstage interview.

“All the girls got asked the same question ‘What experience was most rewarding and why?’” Turner said. “I said my most rewarding experience was when I went to Windy Gap last Oct. because I got to learn a lot about how much God loves me.”

For the beauty section of the pageant Turner wore a yellow gown and had her two aunts help get her ready.

“Getting my makeup done was so much fun,” Turner said “One aunt did my makeup and my other did my hair, it was such a rush, but so much fun.”

Turner placed in the top 20 and is eligible to attend the national competition in Orlando, Fla later this year.

“I’m very excited for the pageant,” Turner said. “I want to meet more people and I feel like since I have one pageant under my belt I will be less nervous this time.”