Encouraging Children, One Book at a Time BY CAROLINE MARTIN
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AROUND ACWORTH | November 2020
During the pandemic, Caroline Martin reads a bedtime story to children via Instagram TV.
W
hen I was younger, I absolutely loved watching the TV show “Toddlers & Tiaras,” mostly because the drama was funny to watch, but also because I loved getting to see all of the fashionable and fun outfits the girls wore. I never really saw myself as being a pageant girl, but loved getting to watch those who were. In the eighth grade, my mom and I discovered a pageant for girls and women with special needs, called Miss Amazing. We love volunteering for these kinds of events, so we immediately signed up. After the first year of volunteering, we knew that we wanted to continue to help with this event, which is held every year at Kennesaw State University. One year, in particular, I met a former Miss Georgia, who told me all about the pageant system. I had always thought every pageant looked like the ones on “Toddlers & Tiaras,” but I was very wrong. After hearing her talk about the reality of pageant systems, I became interested in pageants. As soon as my mom and I returned home from volunteering, I remembered that she had been in pageants throughout her teenage years. Immediately, I wanted to learn all about her experiences and spent the entire next day looking through the scrapbooks from her pageant days. Every page intrigued me, and I finally asked my mom if I could sign up for a pageant myself. After some research online, we eventually found the same pageant system that my mom had competed in for Miss Teen of America was still in business. I was so excited that I wanted to try to win a title that moment. However, my parents were very hesitant and unsure. After studying everything I needed to know to convince my parents to let me sign up for the pageant, they finally agreed to let me participate. Surprisingly, I ended up winning the Junior Miss of the Southern States title in 2018 and went on to compete
