It took seconds for Stephanie Rodriguez to walk her way into the judges’ hearts, but the 14-year-old McAllen pageant contestant spent months working on that first impression.
Earning top honors for modeling her evening gown, Rodriguez was crowned Miss Junior Teen South Texas on Sunday at the Miss South Texas Junior Pageant held at the Pharr Convention Center.
But before the month is over, she’ll be preparing to take her next title at the National American Miss Pageant this summer.
In the competitive world of Rio Grande Valley pageants, there’s no such thing as beauty rest.
“The competition is not just what you see on stage,” said Patty Bazaldua, pageant director for Platinum RGV, the company that produced Sunday’s competition.
“We have a full weekend of events, extensive training and workshops for all the girls.”
Each year, the start of summer signals the beginning of pageant season for the dozens of girls from Roma to South Padre Island who aspire to one day don a tiara, clutch a bouquet of roses in their manicured fists and cry away their eyeliner as they swathe themselves in that curve-hugging sash.
And Sunday’s contest, held at the Pharr Convention Center, offered Rodriguez and three other girls, who were also named winners in their age category, the opportunity to live out that dream.
This month alone, Valley contestants will compete at least five pageants in cities across the region — more than any other part of the state, said Cassidy Klein, a former Miss McAllen and founder of ValleyQueens.com, a mega-resource for the region’s beauty queen set.
“The Rio Grande Valley, right now, has over 50 pageants every year,” she said. “But some of the same girls are competing in all of them. You do tend to see some familiar faces.”
By most accounts, the Valley went pageant crazy in the mid ’90s with the start of several competing production companies. And soon every new pageant began spawning its own qualifying contests, said Johnny Llanes, who has made his career coaching local beauty queens.
Now, almost every city in the Valley hosts its own contest and a core group of about 50 girls spend most of their free time trying on evening gowns, squeezing into swimsuits and practicing their talents to compete in them all.
“We live in the Mecca of the (Texas) pageant world,” Llanes said. “There’s nothing like it anywhere else in the state.”
To support this relatively small but enthusiastic subculture, shops like McAllen’s Lauren Yvanna Ltd., have started catering to the pageant contestants, selling couture dresses, talent accessories and form-exposing, but not too skimpy, swimsuits.
Pageant coaches like Llanes have made a living training girls how to gain a competitive edge over other competitors.
“I can’t let these girls go into a pageant unprepared,” he said. “They have this dream of becoming a big star someday, and if they achieve it through pageants, so be it.”
While no one can explain exactly why the border has become the pageant capital of Texas, Klein surmises it has something to do with the lack of other opportunities for young girls.
Teens and preteens in San Antonio, Dallas or Houston can get swept up in competitive cheerleading, gymnastics and dance programs, but pageants offer the Valley’s girls a taste of all three in a region where access to intensive training is limited.
But despite the South Texas’ apparent love for a well-spoken girls in formal wear and heels, a Valley teen has yet to capture the most prestigious titles in the state — Miss Texas USA and Miss Texas Teen USA, Bazaldua said.
“We have the most pageants,” she said. “But I really do believe there’s a future Miss Texas waiting to be discovered here.”
Until she’s found, it's back to the dressing room for these girls.
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Jeremy Roebuck covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4437.
