Casey Candy Cane Pageant

When you hear the word pageant, what do you think of?

A pretty dress. A crown. A stage. A smile. A competition.

Before we were involved in pageantry, we probably would have thought of those things too.

But after being on the other side of the crown, we’ve learned there is an entire side of this world that you simply cannot see from the audience.

Yes, there are judges. There are criteria. There are scores. There is competition. And yes, our girls get to put on beautiful dresses, fix their hair and have their moment in the spotlight, and sometimes wear a crown.

Those things are part of pageantry.

But they are only a small piece of the picture.

Pageantry can…

Teach a little girl to stand in front of a room full of people and find her voice.

Give a shy girl the confidence toshare her opinion and realize that what she has to say matters.

Help a girl discover that she doesn’t have to be the loudest person in the room to be a leader.

Teach a girl that she doesn’t have to change who she is, make herself smaller or fit into someone else’s idea of what a “queen” should be.

Give her a place to discover what makes her special instead of trying to become someone else.

Give a girl the courage to try something that scares her — and the confidence to try again when it doesn’t go the way she hoped.

Teach girls how to handle both winning and losing with grace.

Teach them that another girl’s success doesn’t take anything away from their own.

Teach the girls to cheer for one another, even when they are competing for the same crown.

Teach them that competition and kindness can exist in the same place.

Create friendships that turn into sisterhood.

Give girls opportunities to serve their communities and learn that leadership isn’t about being recognized — it’s about being willing to show up and serve.

Give them opportunities to step outside their comfort zone, meet new people, speak to adults, advocate for something they care about and learn to be comfortable using their voice.

Give a girl a safe place to fail, learn, grow and try again.

And maybe most importantly, remind a young woman that she is capable of so much more than she ever believed she was.

Because yes, a pageant has judges. We judge a competition based on criteria. We give scores. We choose a winner.

But we do not get to decide a girl’s worth.

A score can tell us how a contestant performed that day. It can never tell us how valuable, capable, kind, intelligent or worthy that girl is. It doesn’t show us how far that girl has came in believing in herself each year on that stage.

And then there is the part that we think is hardest to explain unless you’ve experienced it yourself…

The people.

The directors. The board members. The mentors. The women who stand behind these girls and invest in them.

The women who spend countless hours preparing, encouraging, teaching, listening, answering questions, wiping tears, celebrating victories and reminding these girls who they are when they forget.

And the beautiful thing is, that relationship doesn’t have to end when the year does.

We tell these girls that we will support them for life — and we mean it.

Our very first queens still come back to us years later. Contestants who didn’t take home a crown still call us, talk to us, celebrate with us, lean on us and know that we are in their corner.

Girls who once walked through our doors as contestants grow up and become part of this family in completely different ways.

Some of these girls truly become our extra kids.

We get to watch them grow, graduate, become leaders, chase dreams, overcome hard things, start families and become incredible women.

And somehow, we get the privilege of cheering them on through all of it.

That is the part of pageantry that I wish more people could see.

Because a crown lasts for a year.

A title eventually gets passed on.

A score is just a number.

But the confidence you build, the friendships you make, the lessons you learn, the people you serve and the women who believe in you long after the crown is gone?

Those things can last a lifetime.

So we asked our girls:

“What does pageantry mean to you?”

Their answers are a little glimpse into the side of pageantry that doesn’t always make it onto the stage.

This isn’t meant to convince anyone that pageantry has to be for them. It’s simply an invitation to look a little deeper.

Because pageantry isn’t about telling a girl she’s beautiful enough to wear a crown.

It’s about helping her realize that she is so much more than the crown she’s wearing.

It’s about giving her a place to find her voice, discover her confidence, serve others, build friendships, learn to lead and surround herself with people who will continue to believe in her long after the lights go down.

And honestly, that is my favorite part of this world.

We cannot wait to see these 7 wonderful young women grace the stage and find out who our next Miss Casey Candy Cane will be!

That’s a wrap on all our contestants! Who are you cheering for?