Aptos High freshman Jade Bowdoin is headed to Palm Springs to compete in the Miss California Teen Pageant in January.
SANTA CRUZ - Jade Bowdoin is your all-American girl. Confident, outgoing and motivated, she donates her time to community service programs, aspires to study medicine and eventually enter the Peace Corps - but in her immediate sights is the Miss California Teen pageant.
The energetic and talkative brunette is the first to tell you pageants are more than physical beauty.
"Pageants aren't what you think, they aren't about girls being judged; they're about girls going out there and saying I love myself and I don't want to be judged," Bowdoin said. "Most of the girls who do it aren't the stereotype. Most of us are pretty smart and we do pageants for prize money and to get money for college. Most of us have 4.0s (grade point average) - you'd be surprised."
Bowdoin said she hopes to see support in Santa Cruz grow and while dispelling the myths surrounding pageants.
She said that she once saw a protester in Santa Cruz wearing a "meat dress," and protesting pageants - shouting women were not meat but people.
Nonetheless, perceptions of pageants as detrimental to women have limited the community support Bowdoin has received.
Bowdoin's mother, Theresa, said she hopes people will realize that pageants are about awareness and community service as much as they are about the young women who participate.
When entering a pageant, each contestant has a platform or a cause that she supports and hope to spread awareness. Bowdoin's platform is focused on St. Jude's Children's Hospital and Save Our Shores.
Recently, Bowdoin has participated in several Save Our Shores beach cleanups in Half Moon Bay and Seacliff. She is also hoping to organize a fundraiser for Invisible Children and collaborate with Miss Monterey on a collection for Annie's Blankets.
Bowdoin competed in her first pageant in the third grade and has been hooked ever since.
But outside of pageants, she has been involved with community service and Girl Scouts for 10 years. In August, she plans to work as a counselor at a nearby science camp.
An avid runner, a member of her high school track team and a recreational surfer and skateboarder, Bowdoin hopes to show that pageant girls are well-rounded young women and more than a pretty face.
"I'm not trying to be a stereotypical pageant girl I just want to be who I am and go out there," Bowdoin said. "The whole idea of a pageant is to be yourself and just own the stage and get that attention. And I feel it's really positive attention and it's a huge self-esteem booster."
She said she wants people to realize that pageants aren't like "Toddlers in Tiaras," but that overall the girls who participate create a unique support system. Bowdoin said "everyone's a sister" and she said she met one of her closest friends, this year's Miss Santa Clarita, through the pageant.
Bowdoin and her mother both attribute pageants to Jade's personal growth. Theresa Bowdoin said she has seen her daughter's confidence and poise grow.
"Win or lose, packing up from a pageant and leaving a hotel room, I always feel so great about myself," Bowdoin said. "When I put on my sash, I'm the happiest I am it's just the whole experience, meeting all the new girls, all the new people, you cannot be shy."
Jade Bowdoin
PARENTS: Theresa and James Bowdoin
AGE: 15
BORN: Dec. 3 1996 in Santa Cruz
SCHOOL: Aptos High
DETAILS: Bowdoin will compete in the Miss California Teen pageant Jan. 6-8 in Palm Springs
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Source: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_19610487?source=rss_viewed
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