Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY -- Utah tends to have a reputation for a lack of diversity in race, politics, and religion. But the glamorous world of beauty pageantry seems to be shedding some of those stereotypes.
Alisha Lee, Miss Utah Valley University, could be Miss America one day.
"It's inspiring," she said. "It pumps me up. I have a date and I'm working hard toward it. I would love to represent Utah and the people of Utah because we are diverse here."
John Calveri has been consulting with national pageants for 17 years. "I've seen some of the judges baffled on the idea of ‘So how do I compare a minority to the typical blonde hair, blue-eyed pageant girl?'" he said.
He says our culture is beginning to be a little more diverse as people are thinking a little more outside the box. And thinking outside the box is just what Utah pageantry has become. The state hosts several cultural pageants that celebrate world cultures, like Utah's Miss United Nations USA pageant. It gives international students a chance to win scholarships. This year's winners represent several continents.
The Miss Asia Utah pageant celebrates Asian countries and culture. This year, Tajikistan's Nilufar Sherzod was the first Muslim to win the pageant. And last year, Glora Kajo started the first Miss Africa Utah pageant.
"I felt it was a way for Africans to be able to showcase their rich cultural heritage," she said.
Fatou Tandia, Miss Africa Utah 2010, said, "It was huge for me to be the first Miss Africa Utah. It was huge. I don't have the words to describe it."
Calveri said minorities used to feel pressure when competing.
"You'd have a minority, a black or Asian person who would join a pageant. They would feel insecure, like ‘I'm a minority, so how am I ever going to win this?'" he said.
But these women say they don't feel pressure, mainly because it's more of a generational thing. And more Utah families are multi-racial now, like that of Keilara McCormick who is the first African American Miss Utah Teen USA.
"It was significant to me. I think it was really cool that pageants are branching out and there's a lot of diversity," she said.
E-mail: niyamba@ksl.com
