Pageant News Bureau - Miss Teen USA 2002, Page 6

What if teenage girls ran the world? This is not an idle question. It could happen at any time.

When we look at the contestants in this year's Miss Teen USA Pageant, we feel a bit intimidated. They're not just beautiful, they're overachievers. Smart, fit, responsible, even modest. "Infinite variety," as the great writer said.

We can't tell you everything about these girls. We can't even tell you everything about any one of them. You would think we were exaggerating.

But we can tell you some things that you never would have guessed. That's the joy of PNB.

A rookie with roots

Lacey Wilson has an athlete for a father and a beauty queen for a mother. She has made both sides of the family proud.

Her father, Doug, is a former professional hockey player who's now a team official. Following in that sporting tradition, Ms. Wilson has competed at the national level in volleyball and figure skating, and was captain of her high school basketball team. (She plays golf just for fun.)

Her mother, Kathy, was Miss Illinois World 1979, and Ms. Wilson "grew up around pageants." Waiting until she was almost 18 to compete herself, she won the Miss Illinois Teen USA title as a complete newcomer. (Her sister Chelsea is Miss Teen Illinois Intercontinental.)

It may have been a sense of homecoming that made Ms. Wilson want to become a beauty queen after years of sticking to sports. She was born in Chicago, but the family moved to California when she was 7 because her father changed teams. In 2001, they moved back, and her love of her native state became stronger than ever. When you ask her how she would describe herself, she tells you to look for the girl "wearing the Illinois banner."

If she can't be in Chicago, she says, any big city will do. London and San Francisco are two of her favorites. And New York, of course. That's where she would like to live for a year -- as Miss Teen USA.

We asked our PNB interviewer to sum up Lacey Wilson in three words. He thought a minute and said, "on the ball."

Most appropriate.

Photos courtesy of Lacey Wilson

Montana in motion

Meghan Minnick has really great legs. And they've done a lot for her.

Their strength has made her an outstanding high jumper and hurdler. Their speed has helped her become a stellar soccer player, with a wicked left-foot kick that catches many a goalie off guard. Their grace has made her a delightful dancer. Well done, oh shapely limbs!

It was fancy legwork that helped get Ms. Minnick into pageants. In 2001, she was dancing with a retro troupe called the Teen Angels at a classic car show. A woman in the audience happened to be the director of Miss Montana Teen USA. You can guess the conversation that followed "Have you ever thought of . . .?" The girl from Missoula thought about it, she did it, and she won.

Ms. Minnick impishly refers to herself as "a young'un," and she is younger than most of her pageant rivals. Her "Sweet 16" birthday is Aug. 16, 2002, the day the girls arrive on South Padre Island.

There's one thing about this Montana beauty that our PNB interviewer found especially endearing. When he mentioned her younger sister, Ms. Minnick made a point of telling him, "She'd be really good in pageants."

"That's genuinely sweet," the interviewer said. And so it is.

Photos courtesy of Meghan Minnick

August 2002South Padre Island, Texas

A rookie with roots

Montana in motion

August 2002
South Padre Island, Texas