Best Friends REACT to Unreleased Pageant Footage

Howdy my loves, welcome back to the Miss NTD podcast where beauty meets goodness. I'm your host Cynthia. Today I'm thrilled to be joined by my lovely friend who is Miss NTD runner-up. If you've seen the pageant you know how talented she is in dancing but she's also an amazing event organizer and the best hotel roommate I could have ever asked for. Vicky? Hi everyone, my name is Vicky and I'm an upcoming senior in college currently measuring dance. Have you heard what we're doing today? Yes, so we will be watching some of our past footage and reacting to it. That's right, we're going to be going through some unreleased footage and reacting to the realities of pageant week. We were actually sent a sneak peek of the footage from the producer recently but it's been about nine months since we've held the pageant so 99% of the footage will be completely new to you and to us. Do you remember how many cameras there were? Plenty. So many. It was like a reality tv show. Let's get to it. You want to hit play together? Sure. Three, two, one. The dresses were so soft. This was for the opening. Oh my god, yeah, they were so nice. The crazy part was the tailor customized it for 32 girls. That's insane. The backdrop I think was probably my favorite part of the whole stage. It just made everything come together so well. I've never seen something like this. Yeah, and it was so handmade too, right? All the wood carvings. I remember during that week, even when I was dreaming, I would hear the opening dance. Remember? The song would just like ring in my head. It's that earworm. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So nice. It's so like humbling to see like so many amazing artists from like different crafts come together to produce the pageant because you don't really think about these things when you're going in as but once you step on that stage you realize so many people are involved in the outfits, the backdrop, the music, production, everything. Yeah, everything. The logos, the drawings. It's insane. It really made me feel like I was going back in time. So the composer is talking about the beauty of music, right? And I think when we talk about traditional beauty, classical beauty in pageants, it really goes past the surface and you see like all of the depths to it, right? You have like different appearances in art and different ways to compose a song and like how they all come together and bring like a deeper type of beauty to the stage. It goes hand-in-hand with compassion. I agree. Yeah. Oh look, there's me! Oh my god! So beautiful. I think that was for one of our practice sessions, I think so. And this one was opening, the opening night. Oh my god! So cute. I still remember that hotel lobby. We had to wait there for the bus every single morning so everyone was touching up their makeup, taking Polaroids. So cute. I didn't expect we had to like introduce ourselves. Oh no, I wasn't prepared for that. During the opening night, the press conference, they were like, okay, introduce yourselves one by one. And some people did so well. They were like up there giving a TED talk. I was okay, I was okay. Oh my gosh. Yeah, I thought I was prepared but as soon as opening night started, I was like, I'm not prepared for this. Oh look, there's us! That's our group. But if we could get love from God, then we could hold on to that heart to remember that we were created for a special purpose. And it's not what man says we are, it's who God says we are. It's a really nice saying. I believe Miss MTV is going to be our harbinger. Oh, that's my back? Yeah. Wearing your dress? That was crazy. I can't believe your dress fit me. I can't believe your dress fits so many people. And your dress fits me as well. Yeah, that's true. What a journey. Yeah, honestly. That's our youngest. My name is Li Li. My name is Wendy Xu. Hi, this is Elizabeth. My name is Joyce Chen. My name is Cynthia Sun. My name is Melody Hughes. My name is Laura. I'm Fiona. My name is Monica. My name is Lea Pat. My name is Lisa Meng. Hi, my name is Victoria. Beauty means internal confidence to me. Internal confidence? Indeed. I don't even remember what I said. To me, beauty means a type of purity, a type of elegance, and a type of divinity that you can connect with. She's so cute. Beauty is a gift and it's also a talent that you can... I was sitting next to Paulina during the interviews, and so she went into the room before me, and I remember she was wearing that outfit, and it was such business chic. I was like, oh gosh, what am I wearing right now? I don't know if I've said this before in interviews, but my top picks, because every girl had their top picks, right, for who they thought would be first place at the end of the week. My top picks were Paulina and Wendy. Paulina is like, she's working in Singapore. She's the stewardess with so much experience. She's written a book. She's an author. She's so talented. And then she was just on top of everything. Her dress was gorgeous. And then Wendy had so many years of experience dancing. She's majoring in Chinese culture and history, and so I thought the two of them would have... I was betting on them to win. What were your bets? Did you have any? Honestly, you. Me? Yes, because you do so much public relations stuff, like very diplomatic, you know, and you're very tall. Yeah, Rita was really tall too. I was surprised. There was quite a few tall girls there. Catwalk practice, oh my gosh. I remember that hotel basement so well. You were filming so much. I loved your little reels. It was so cute. To have so many fellow contestants who are so talented, they all have their own unique... So sweet. Yeah, Paulina. Oh, her birthday! Yeah, I think Wendy had her birthday and then Monica's birthday was like a few days after. Oh, so cute. I actually don't know if they had any idea because... I don't think so. No, they weren't, right? Some of the staff planned it behind the scenes. Looking back now, it's like a dream. Oh, honestly. It was so slow when we were there because we had these 12-hour days of training, but yeah, it passed by so fast. And it was completely new to all of us as well. So it was like we wake up every morning, have no idea what to expect, don't know what we're eating for the day, don't know where we're going. So it was really eye-opening. First video's over, okay. Let's go to the... I can't wait to be an audience for the next pageant. Oh, that's one of my biggest... Yeah, that's on my bucket list. Go down there and then cheer for them. I want to, for the next pageant, I want to do backstage. Like, you know, make up mishaps or help them sew things because honestly, our backstage staff... Yeah, brush their hair. Like, I brushed yours. Because the backstage staff were so helpful. Like, some girls didn't bring their shoes or their earrings had problems. Or left something at the hotel. Exactly. And then so whenever they came and stepped in, it was just so reassuring. Like, we already had enough things, a million things to worry about. And so I want to be that for the next batch of girls. But watching it will be great. Would you be a judge? Do you think you want to be a judge? Maybe in a decade. Yeah, I don't think I'm qualified for it. Yeah, that makes sense. What did you... Like, because obviously, there were people in the audience. Our friends came and things like that. Like, what reaction did you hear from them? Like, feedback? Yeah. Or like, things that they noticed about you. My mom said she didn't recognize me. Like, she saw... As soon as like, the curtains open, she like, saw where I was. But the way that I carried myself was different than obviously when I'm at home. Obviously, the dress is brand new to her because you bought it. I didn't even... She didn't know that it was like, in my wardrobe. And I think the questionnaire, like, the question and answer and like, the whole like, choreography, the stage choreography that they had for the walking and the introduction, I think it was all like, very new to her as new it is for us. So she said she didn't recognize me. She was really proud, but she was like, is that really my daughter? Is that a twin or is that... I remember there were a few of the helpers who were in the backstage and they had a TV, like, doing live stream. And then I remember when I went off the stage, I went to the backstage and then I saw some of them crying a little, like, tearing up a little. Yeah, and then I went there and hugged every of them. That's so sweet. They were like, oh, good job. They've seen us grow throughout the week as well. Because when we first go there, it's like, we're like little chicks, like, what are we here for? And at the end of the week, we like, we know the rhythm, we know the routine. Everything is like, smooth. We're changing on time. Exactly, exactly. We're not taking 50 minutes to change. Yeah, we're like, yeah. Let's go to the dance section. Oh, what is this? It's Vicky! Oh, look at that. Oh my gosh, so gorgeous. So this was like the dance, solo and group section. And it was like the main dance break for the opening. And so we had five principal dancers. Vicky was one of them. We were so proud. But they practiced so much. I think like, every single second I saw you backstage, like, you weren't doing makeup. You were like, barefaced. Doing your, what is it, aerials. And then like, doing your dances. Because I actually have to perform a solo on stage. Yeah, so I'm like, and then plus, during that week, I don't get to, like, I don't get to do a lot of dance conditioning. So I'm like, kind of stressed out. So I'm like, using spare time to like, do a little kicking. And then do some bridge and then practice some movement dance. Which one were you more stressed about? The dance opening or your dance solo? Oh, my dance solo. Oh, your dance solo? Honestly, I think my dance solo is a, I worry about the most. Out of everything? Out of everything, yeah. Oh, wow. For me, it was the question and answer. Because everything else is muscle. Thank you so much. You did good too. No, I don't know. That's why you're number two. What do you mean? You did so good. Vicky can't take compliments, guys. You know, after the questionnaire, I was like, I wish I have, I wish I know more about Chinese culture. So I can like, I have more in my toolbox so that I can use it. Right, that's true. Yeah, but I think the question was rather broad. Because I don't remember, maybe we can look back at our question and answers. But I think for my question and answers, I didn't really talk about Chinese history at all. I think I talked about my identity as a Chinese American. So honestly, for future contestants, I think as long as you connect it to yourself and as long as you touch upon what you really believe traditional and classical beauty to be, I think it's such a broad spectrum. So I agree though. After the pageant, I was like, I have to find, I have to go take culture class. I have to, yeah. Because I think it's such an important part to know where you come from and your heritage. So that was a really good reminder for me. The pageant was like, but you did good on your question. I love how my nails match my shirt. The IDs. I stuffed so many things in that ID. Sanitizer wipes, q-tips. With cash on them. Cash, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've never opened champagne before. I just shook it as hard as I could and it exploded. Well, this is day one. How many times did I say I think?