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Miss All American City Jessica Barrett isn't your typical beauty queen.
"I don't even have a coach; I must not be a real pageant girl," Barrett said. "I'm pretty down to earth, I eat all the time. It's the opposite of the stereotype."
Stereotypical or not, Barrett-a junior pre-med and microbiology major and member of the Alpha Phi sorority at Miami University-has achieved great success in the world of pageants and will participate next summer in the Miss Ohio USA pageant as Miss All American City.
This summer Barrett competed in Miss Ohio as Miss West Central Ohio, performing the song "Popular" from the Broadway musical Wicked and was awarded the Non-Semifinalist Talent Award.
Now, despite the long journey, Barrett has another shot at the Miss Ohio crown.
Barrett recalls entering her first pageant the summer before beginning college and placing first runner up.
"I left the experience saying, 'Well, that was fun,'" Barrett said. "I wasn't sure (about pageants) at first, the swimming suit competition … but I've realized it is about enrichment and scholarship."
Scholarships are one of the many positive aspects Barrett attributes to her participation in pageants.
"It really boosts your confidence in other areas," she said. "It helps you handle the interview process in the future and anything on stage."
In fact, Barrett attributes this confidence as one of her best assets.
"The things I am most proud of about myself are my morals," she said. "I think you have to be confident when you're expressing your thoughts and beliefs (in a pageant setting)."
Barrett's confidence translates into her involvement beyond pageants.
In high school, Barrett participated in choir and currently serves as the secretary of Stage Left at Miami. In addition, Barrett has landed roles in a number of musicals at Miami, including The Rocky Horror Picture Show; You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown; and, most recently, The Wild Party.
"I've been singing since I can't even remember," Barrett said. "My family is very musical. And I think that's great. That gave me the confidence."
Barrett said her family is very important to her, giving parents, John and Lisa Barrett, credit for being her center in life.
"My parents have to take the brunt of it," she said. "My mom, especially, reminds me to take things one day at a time."
"We try to be supportive. Both emotionally and financially," Lisa Barrett said, laughing.
Jessica Barrett's mother, a social worker, admits to having concerns when her daughter first decided to enter pageants.
"We thought (pageants) were exploitive," she said. "And we worry. (Jessica) gets so overextended, doing pageants and musicals."
However, her mother places a great deal of value in Jessica Barrett's participation in pageants, and believes the process has assisted her daughter in the development of self esteem and public speaking skills, as well as a greater knowledge of current events and understanding of her pageant platform-organ donation.
"We know what's inside matters more," Lisa Barrett said. "And, maybe I'm biased, but (Jessica) is a very good person. If she wasn't my daughter, then she'd certainly be my friend. She's very confidant, compassionate, she cracks us up … She's just a kid that lights up a room."
In addition to finding support in her family, Barrett's choice to advocate organ donation as her pageant platform also stems from her family. When her aunt needed a kidney transplant, she was inspired by her cousin, who gave kidney after a series of donors were incompatible.
"It went very smoothly … It's an amazing thing to see, to see someone's life changed," Jessica Barrett said.
Her position on organ donation relates, as well, to her interest in the medical field. After graduating, she hopes to enter medical school in order to become a forensic pathologist.
"The more I read about it, the more I got interested," she said. "And the more I looked at it, the more I loved it. It will be really rewarding to help other people and I've always been interested in science … I'm such a geek, you have to understand."
