Most Common Beauty Pageant MYTHS

Someone needs makeup, someone's eyeliner broke, someone's lipstick fell off or melted. There's so many things that can go wrong and so you're really each other's cheerleaders. It's actually just a competition with yourself, so myth busted. Ooh, a hole. Howdy, my loves. Welcome back to the Miss NTD podcast, where beauty meets goodness. I'm your host, Cynthia. Today, we'll be diving into common myths and clearing the air about some rather wild controversies based on my own experience as Miss NTD. Myth number one, pageants are superficial. This is not entirely unwarranted because from the outsider perspective, I can see how most people think pageants are superficial, like it's just about outer beauty and not inner beauty, but right now, especially with the Miss NTD global pageant, I personally think this entire process of Miss NTD, of pageantry, meeting other contestants and the whole competition aspect is so much more than just what it appears. The interview portion was actually graded pretty widely and it was pretty heavily focused on who are you, what's your background and where do you wanna go, it was a lot about inner beauty rather than the outer beauty and there was also a lot about testing your values and trying to express that. So one of the questions was like, who is your role model and what virtue do they embody to you? And another could be like, out of these values, which is the most important and why? Propriety, morality, benevolence, faithfulness and righteousness. And everything is scored based on how well you can articulate your message. It's based on your background, your expertise, your uniqueness and your vision for the future. So I think this is debunked for sure. I don't think pageants are superficial, especially Miss NTD. Everything is about you, your personality, where you come from and how that makes you different. So myth busted. Myth number two, pageants are rigged. I can't really speak to other pageants. I'm sure that fans around the world of beauty pageants are biased to their own favorite contestant. I've watched many reality TV shows myself, so I'm guessing that's where this myth stems from. But this is actually impossible for Miss NTD because contestants start earning points from the very beginning of pageant week, from the interviews in the preliminary stage all the way through to the grand finale stage. And the process of the week really goes like this. You go to the hotel and then the second day, after you've met everyone, seen what the lay of the land is, you have these preliminary interviews where it's just you and three of the judges. And they ask you a few questions about where you come from and different things that you value and you just truthfully answer in front of them. And from there, after a few days, there's the semifinals, which is also on stage. And you have to answer these interview questions that are prepared ahead of time. Those are actually pretty crucial to the pageant points. And then that leads up to, depending on how many points you get from those two, that leads up to the grand finale, which they pick the top 16 based on the first two interview points. And so when you're there, then within the top 16, they pick based on your catwalk, your Q&A, and a variety of different yourself introduction. And so there's no way it can be rigged because the process is monitored from start to finish. Everyone knows each other. All the contestants have met each other. Some of the pageant interviews, we're there to see it. And so the pageants, there's really no way to get around it. And I honestly think it's impossible, but that's just my experience. Myth number three, pageant contestants are super competitive. I've heard this so many times. People say that I must secretly hate all the other contestants, and how we must feel like this is like a really big part of our identity and whoever wins is gonna be shunned or there's gonna be tons of jealousy and backstabbing and catfights, but that's not what my experience was at all. And I've heard other pageant contestants say the same thing. This morning, actually, before filming, I actually saw Fiona from Canada and she was one of the top six girlies with me. And that was such a wonderful surprise. I bumped into her this morning and it really is such a special start to my day because a lot of us are spread around the world. We had five contestants from Australia, several contestants from Canada, from Taiwan, from all Europe. Everyone's so spread out. So you really get to cherish that week that you're together and it's really welcoming for young women and there's a few examples of this. Backstage, there's a lot of incidents with makeup, hair, accessories. There's so many things that can go wrong and so you're really each other's cheerleaders. If someone needs makeup, someone's eyeliner broke, someone's lipstick fell off or melted, someone's earrings broke in the middle of the stage, you really help each other backstage to make each other the best versions of yourself that you can be. And in truth, it's actually just a competition with yourself because all of these questions, you can't really get competitive over them because it's really answering from where you come from, where your roots are. And so I think this is completely hogwash that it's competitive and things like that. There were a few moments backstage where actually some of the more introverted contestants were having a really difficult time with building that stage presence and they had a lot of pressure from all the catwalk, all the training that was done. It's pretty intense. And so we got together, we huddled around them, we had a lot of team bonding experiences and so I would think this myth is completely a no for me, to be honest. We have myth number four. Pageant contestants are rich. I don't know about this one. I can see both sides of the coin. Most pageant contestants are not rich and it's really important to tap into your community for support. For example, some of the Taiwan girlies for Miss NTD, they had a dress rental company support them for their evening gown session. There was another contestant that started a GoFundMe and was able to raise money for her trip to come to the pageantry and to participate in the competition and that was really wonderful to see because obviously for everybody involved, it's a challenge and it's something that's worthwhile. And so obviously if you do have money, it's easier in a sense. It's not cheap to attend a pageant and I'm not gonna sugarcoat it and say that pageants are cheap. For me, I spent around $2,500 to $3,000 during the Miss NTD process because you have the application fee, the dress, the nails, the hairstyling and any travel that you're doing. But I was lucky because I'm actually living in New York and so in the 2023 pageant, because it was held in New York, I didn't really have that much to spend on traveling but if you're flying in to the US from another country, there's extra travel costs on top of that. So I would definitely recommend what the other pageant contestants did which is find sponsorships for anything you can get your hands on because this is a really great advertising opportunity for them. NTD obviously is a really big multi-language news company, media company and so the amount of exposure and the amount of attention that this pageant will bring is something that they would be interested in. So don't be afraid to do that. I would say this is a maybe. It's not completely debunked but it's a maybe. Now on to myth number five. Pageants encourage unhealthy dieting. I'll be honest, I actually did diet before the Miss NTD pageant but this is really up to each contestant. So I can see both sides of the coin. Some people may find it harder and so they really take it as a challenge to be at the top of their athletic game because we do have an athleisure section, we have a lot of catwalking. I remember one of the contestants, she had lost 30 kilograms within the few months before the Miss NTD pageant. It just blew me away when she shared that with us. I was just so amazed at her ability to, her grit, her determination and how she really wanted to use this opportunity to transform herself, to become the best self that she could be. She's eating healthily. We had three meals a day provided for us at the pageant week and I can confidently say that none of us starved ourselves. We weren't really dieting. We're walking. During pageant week, we actually get to walk and do training for up to like eight to 10 hours and so when you're really active like that during the day, a lot of the calories are burned off naturally. So even though we were eating three meals a day, snacks in between, we really actually lost weight. There was a girl who said she lost a kilogram a day just from pageant week. So I don't think that this is unwarranted but I think it's up to the contestant to really emphasize a healthy relationship with food, a healthy relationship in terms of what you wanna achieve, like what your goal is with the pageant. I think that needs to be clear before you attend. So this is a maybe. Myth number six, pageants are just not relevant. You know, the interesting thing about Miss NTD is the way that it really captures a woman's true essence and inner beauty and I've said this before but just to dive deeper into this topic, a lot of young women my age and on social media glamorize like that it girl life but in reality, it has twists and turns. Life doesn't really go the way you want to and you often end up where you didn't expect. So for me personally, I've had a few periods like that too where I felt like my future was just murky and really unclear but that's just it. Like for me as a journey through pageantry, through Miss NTD, I think even the audience and the viewer at home can see it. It's really about reflecting inwardly and solely about finding our paths forward and I think this story of growth is something that will always be relevant now and in the future. So I actually don't agree with this but it's okay if you do, if that makes sense. Myth number seven, beauty queens aren't smart. Well, my cohort of Miss NTD had a nurse, several master degree holders, multiple authors. I don't really think I need to say more on this. So next myth. Myth number eight, you have to be a certain body type to enter pageants. I can see where this myth comes from because there's obviously a history of pageantry, there's decades of pageants, the whole beauty queen stereotype that's built up over time but from what I know, Miss NTD and multiple other pageants that are pretty well-known don't have height or weight requirements which is pretty common nowadays. Obviously, as a pageant that discusses inner beauty, we have a requirement that, you know, you can't have any disciplinary record but aside from that, I think maybe the only other one would be you have to be a biological female. So I guess you do have to be a female body type to enter in that sense. Other than that, a lot of the contestants that I know, you know, we're varying in height sizes. I'm 178 centimeters tall which is like about 5'10 in feet but there were a lot of contestants that were shorter, there's a lot of contestants that are often taller. So whether you're curvy or more like a stick like I am or whatever your size or shape or anything, I don't really think that's common now. So I would say it's debunked but I can see where it comes from. And then myth number nine, pageant contestants have all gotten plastic surgery. Oh, oh my gosh. Wow, this is brutal. This is actually really brutal. Not true. I haven't done plastic surgery. Just to put it out of the gate right now. I think it's important to be your most authentic self if you're going to attend Miss Entity and as you present yourself in front of an audience of thousands, potentially millions. So I personally haven't done any and I think my pageant sisters would agree with that sentiment of presenting your most authentic self. And this question is already controversial but for me, if I were to be honest, I wouldn't do any plastic surgery in the future and I wouldn't recommend it unless it's really obviously a medical emergency or related to some sort of skin trauma because I've seen both good and bad surgery results including complications and post-surgery care. So this isn't to discourage anyone but if you really, really, really want to get surgery I would wait until you're over the age of 21 and honestly just consult your family and at least try three different doctors before you commit to it. It's a serious issue and a medical issue even though people think of it as some sort of like simple cosmetic change but plastic surgery can be life-altering and it is life-changing in that sense. So I'm more on the side of natural skincare, physical wellness, makeup and I'm the captain of that train so I wouldn't encourage plastic surgery and I personally wouldn't do it myself. There was also, ah, I thought of an Asian tradition. There was like this culture of leaving your hair long in the old days to like respect the original body that your parents gifted you with and it was some sort of respect and kind of filial piety about having it untouched, having like your body and your hair untouched so it's like kind of respecting your parents, right? So my mindset on plastic surgery for myself is kind of similar to that. That's all the myths for today. I'm curious what your thoughts are. Do you agree or disagree with these myths? Are you yes or no? Leave a comment or question to join me in the fun next episode and remember, keep spreading optimism and inner beauty like a true queen would. This has been the Miss Entity podcast. Until then, stay beautiful, adieu. Adieu, adieu to you and you and you.