Q&A: 2018 Miss Stanton Contestant #2 Ainsley Hart
HANNAH GREEN AND JUAN PEREZ | FEB. 22, 2018 | INTERVIEW
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (SCPDA) — With the Miss Stanton Pageant around the corner, the pressure is on for all the young women who are participating to represent Stanton. To understand their hopes for the pageant and what they have taken away from it, Devil’s Advocate interviewed them and got their side of the story.
Devil’s Advocate: Why did you decide to run for Miss Stanton?
Ainsley Hart: I decided to run because there is a misconception about beauty pageants and everyone thinks that you kind of just show up to look pretty and once I learned more about it, it takes a lot of time and effort and you don’t just get out there to look pretty in a fancy dress. We have to prepare a speech about an issue that we feel strongly about. For example, I’m talking about the beauty versus brains thing and how a lot of the times if someone looks at a woman in power they think that maybe she only got there because of how she looks. So we have to prepare, we have rehearsals twice a week, sometimes three once it gets closer, and for talent and stuff like that we all have to have sets of skills and we all have to be good communicators and be able to speak publicly and it doesn’t depend on who has the most expensive dress. So I decided to run because, one, I thought it would be a fun experience and, two, just so that I could grow as a communicator because it would help me with public speaking and there’s the interview process that we had to do that will help later on in life with the job interviews.
DA: How might you respond to the negative connotations of beauty pageants?
AH: Well, I would tell [those critical of beauty pageants] basically how it takes a lot of time and effort and skill. People will watch like Toddlers and Tiaras and they’ll be like, “Oh my god there’s just crazy people that do pageants and the crazy parents that make the daughters be in pageants because they want their daughter to be pretty.” That’s totally not the case, my mom couldn’t care less. I just did it because I thought it would be a fun experience.
DA: What is the cause that you’re passionate about?
AH: Well, my platform, like I said earlier, is the Beauty versus Brains misconception. I’ll just give you an example that I’m talking about in my platform: so one year in my math class I didn’t get a question right and my teacher was like, “That’s ok sweetie, thank god you’re pretty.” She told me, “Women don’t need math, you can just marry rich.” I was like, “You’re a woman teaching math; why are you telling me this? I just got one question wrong.” And a lot of people will joke about it sometimes if a girl is acting ditzy or whatever. I’m a pretty bubbly person and I can be clumsy sometimes and a lot of people will just be like, “Oh sweetie, thank god you’re pretty.” That just makes me mad — I mean, I can do smart stuff, too. For example, Cindy Crawford, who is a supermodel goddess — she graduated valedictorian and got a full ride scholarship to study chemical engineering but no one really cares about that because everyone just assumes that she’s pretty and that’s why she’s successful, which, yes, she is a model but she also has a serious intellect.
DA: How might you want to make a difference?
AH: I really want to help other people, specifically women, but I mean guys need it too but specifically with confidence. My original platform was about eating disorders and how there’s the social issues that go along with that — my EE is about that actually — and it’s just something that speaks to me and a lot of people I know, family members and friends, have struggles with body image issues and I really want to help other girls, just because I can relate mostly with girls with their confidence and stuff like that.
DA: What does the title Miss Stanton mean to you?
AH: Miss Stanton means, — whether I win or not it would be a fun experience but — for whoever wins Miss Stanton, they were able to showcase their communication skills and are able to represent the school. I feel like whoever wins should be able to be a role model because they go out and talk to people — it’s not just a sash and a crown. It means more than just looking pretty.
DA: Who is your greatest role model?
AH: I might sound cliché but I would probably say my mom. She works six days a week but she still comes home and makes dinner — we make dinner together and we spend time together. She inspires me and she is a hairdresser and I don’t want to be a hairdresser but I wanna do makeup so it’s the same field and she has been in that field since she was seventeen, I think. So I look up to her because she’s an inspiration in the work field but also as a person because she’s not afraid to talk to anybody; we’ll be in the grocery store and she’ll just talk to the stranger behind her and at the end she’ll know the name of their three kids and I’m like, “Why...mom.” But she’s just a really good communicator and she helps me with that.
DA: Aside from yourself, which contestant do you think should win?
AH: Well my best friend is running so… I really don’t know because I don’t really look at it as a competition and we’ve become a more tight-knit group of friends and I’m not looking at everybody’s stats like, “Oh she’s gonna win.” I know that Rachel is phenomenal on piano, she’s amazing in talent and she’s super smart. I know that Taylor has a put a lot of planning into her talent and her interview and stuff like that. So I don’t really know, I don’t really have an answer.
DA: How has this impacted you?
AH: Well in the beginning, before I really formed any friendships with the girls other than Taylor, it took a little bit of working with my self-confidence levels because going in you’re like, “This is a competition and I’m running against these girls and I have to look the prettiest, I have to be the smartest,” and then, probably by the second rehearsal, we were all just having fun and we were enjoying what we were doing because we all looked ridiculous and we knew it learning the opening act. We all kind of just bonded about how silly we looked. We pretty much became friends. So it’s helped me form new relationships and strengthen old ones.
DA: In what ways have you prepared for this pageant?
AH: Well… time, energy, I opened my wallet very wide. I spent a lot of time, time mainly was the biggest contributor. I mean, you could be already phenomenal with your talent but you still have to work at it and practice it and you have to learn new things, especially because I never gave a speech in front of a crowd of people so I’m kind of nervous about that. Time mainly because I’ve had to work on pronunciation and a lot the times we have time constraints on how long something can be so it just takes a lot of practice and rehearsal. We have rehearsals after school but I go home from rehearsal and practice my speech and make sure that I’ve memorized it in addition to my 80 classes which I have to study for.
DA: What are any hobbies you may have outside of school?
AH: Outside of school? I was gonna say cheerleader. I mentioned this earlier but I do people's makeup. My mom’s a hairdresser and so she’ll do commission work for weddings and stuff and I’ll go and help out with the bridesmaids’ makeup, so that’s something that I love doing. I wanna be an esthetician when I’m older. I eventually wanna try and make my way into some sort of beauty company but, that’s just what I enjoy. I’m in Joe Berg society but that’s kind of lame. I mean the seminars are really cool but I don’t know if I would consider that a hobby, it just look really good on like applications and stuff.
DA: How confident are you for the whole pageant?
AH: Well now that the interview process is over I would say fairly confident. I mean I’m not going to be like, “Oh, I’m gonna win.” I don’t really care, I mean, it would be nice but it’s been a great experience overall. But in the beginning like I said earlier it took like a little bit if work with my self-confidence especially before the interviews. Our interviews were actually Tuesday and I was so worried about it. I was like I’m gonna be talking to these old people that I’ve never met before and they’re gonna be like looking at me and judging me literally because they’re judges. So I probably wasn’t too confident, but once I kind of took a breath I was like, “We’re just going in there and having a conversation, I’m talking about myself I do that all the time, It’s gonna be fine.” So, as of right now, I would say I’m pretty confident in who I am.
DA: And last question, what qualities do you think that Miss Stanton should have?
AH: A people person is who the person should be because, like I said, you have to be able to communicate your ideas clearly. Even if you don’t have a the most confidence ever you’ve kind of got to fake it ‘til you make it. To be able to work under pressure, cause we’ve got to have all of our stuff memorized soon. Humble, humble would be a good one, because even though we’re not all at each other’s throats about who wins, whoever does win I think that they shouldn’t ruin it by bragging about it. They should be able to be a role model rather than just putting other people down.
DA: Well those are all of the questions that we have, thank you so much.
AH: Yeah, no problem.