Pageant News Bureau - Meghan Miller

Miss America's Outstanding Teen (the beginning)

Photos by Joe Whiteko / PNB

Winner Meghan Miller (doing the University of Texas "Hook'em Horns" sign)

They could have held this teen pageant at Gettysburg, or inside the walls of the Alamo. It was a backs-to-the-wall battle.

In the summer of 2005, the Miss America Pageant was in trouble. After decades as a beloved institution, it had lost popularity, and the media was watching its every move for signs of total collapse. After being without a national TV outlet for six months -- something that once seemed unthinkable -- the pageant finally reached an agreement with CMT in June. But its fate was still very much in doubt.

In the midst of all this, the venerable old pageant was preparing to launch its own teen contest -- Miss America's Outstanding Teen. Some former Miss Americas and pageant officials openly rebelled against the idea, telling reporters it was a costly distraction from Miss America's crisis.

Meghan Miller and Adrianna Afsar are the last two standing.

It's Meghan Miller!

The winner on the big screen

PNB, with its usual cheekiness, even criticized the new pageant's name. "Miss America's Outstanding Teen -- a pompous, ponderous title with all the soul of a Chamber of Commerce press release. Why not add one more dollop of cheese and call it 'Miss America's Really Outstanding Teen'?"

With all these bad vibes, one couldn't have blamed those teenage girls if they had hidden in the wings when the lights went up. But like good troupers, they took to the stage in Orlando and gave it their all.

And somehow there was magic. It was corny as only a Miss America-related production can be, but it was endearing, too. And the winner was an adorable Texas blossom named Meghan Miller.

Opening number

Maybe there were a few dollops of cheese. Ms. Miller is the kind of beauty queen most satirists wouldn't dare to invent. At 17, she plays three musical instruments and practices wholesome ventriloquism with two dummies. Only she doesn't call them dummies. She's planning to be a lawyer.

Jenna Bryant of Hoover, Ala., performed a rousing
jazz dance.

Meghan Miller doing her ventriloquist routine

Adrianna Afsar is 13 years old and from San Diego,
California. She finished first runner-up.

Were we missing the point? Was this the work of some subtle pageant genius? Maybe it was corn, maybe it was cheese. Or maybe it was so retro it was downright cutting-edge.

And the Miss America Pageant was saved. You should have guessed that. It's still around, isn't it?

Ms. Miller is the girl who saved Miss America. For this, she is PNB's most remarkable young woman of the year. So far.

Miss America Diedra Downs was the co-emcee.