Pageant Tips for National American Miss, American Coed and International Junior Miss Pageants

When it comes to natural pageants for girls and teens, National American Miss (NAM), American Coed (Coed), and International Junior Miss (IJM) are popular choices for many families. My daughters and clients always rave about the quality of these pageant systems when they participate in them. Because these three pageant systems have similar categories of competition, when you prepare for one it's easy to compete in the other two.
The 3 main areas of competition for state pageants are formal wear, personal introduction, and interview. Fun fashion/Modeling is added as a fourth category of competition at the national IJM pageant.
Special Tips for Formal Wear:

• Gowns must be full length and touch the floor for all three pageants. Better a little too long than too short; but the contestant must be able to walk in the gown without stepping on it. The shoes should not be visible when they are standing still.
• Make sure there are straps on gowns for the girls ages 4-12. The 13-15 age groups are a bit tricky. You will see both strapped and strapless gowns on girls in these age groups. Here is a question to ask yourself when looking for a Jr. Teen gown. When she is wearing the dress, does she look older than 15? It's better to be conservative. If she could pass for an 18-year-old in the dress, it's too mature. Add straps. In the teen divisions, strapless gowns are perfectly acceptable.
• Make sure the skirt isn't too full or puffy. The judges want to see your daughter. If the dress is too wide or too ruffley-puffley, it will shorten the contestant's height on stage and take attention away from the girl. There is a fine line between making a statement with your gown and it being too much. You will start seeing the straighter gown skirts and mermaid styles on the Teens in COED; and on Jr. Teens and Teens in NAM and IJM. Slit skirts are not common on Teens in these three pageant systems; however, occasionally you will see one. It all depends on the how tasteful the dress style is. Again, I feel it is better to be conservative and opt for no slit. A high slit is never appropriate in these three pageants.
• Single colored gowns with tasteful embellishments tend to score best in these systems. If you think the colors of sherbet ice cream flavors, you'll get a pretty good idea of the color palette you'll see on stage. And of course, you will always see white.

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