Pageant Experience Quotes

I never had becoming Miss America on my radar screen. But when I was 17, I decided to quit the violin and my parents were devastated.

Becoming Miss America was one of those things. It immediately changed what I thought I was going to do with the rest of my life.

I felt like I was not a cute kid, and I remember seeing people transform. It was actually when my sister was in the beauty pageants and I was in some pageants. I didn't win any. I always got that like, participant trophy, but I fell in love with the way makeup could transform people.

Participating in Miss India was a paradigm shift and I had a blast.

I prepared myself for Miss Universe for a very long time, for years, and I would always try to imagine what it would be like to introduce myself as Pia Wurtzbach, Miss Universe.

I'd been singing since I was 14 and on the road since high school, and I was very independent. Then I was Miss U.S.A. and had to have a chaperone and spent a year opening supermarkets. It was all so silly, wearing a crown and banner when it was the 1970s and women's liberation was everywhere. That was quite a stigma to overcome.

When I won Miss World, I wasn't even 18, and I only remember, like, I thought of it as a day in the races or something. It didn't feel like it was Miss World of the Millennium Year, the change of the century. I didn't understand the magnitude of it for at least a couple of years.

When I got to be about 16,17 I got into a beauty pageant and I was allowed to start playing around with makeup.

I actually quite miss being called Philippines because in the pageant it's normal for us to be called our country instead of our names. If somebody goes, 'Philippines!' I turn my head and I know that's me. Now they go 'Pia' or 'Miss Universe.' Of course that's better. But I also miss that, being called my country.

Yes, my pageant career was incredibly short. I started at 19 and was done at 21. I started by competing for Miss California Teen, which I wound up winning, and I literally just entered the contest on a whim!

The whole process of winning the pageant has been so amazing, I'm really excited to move forward into all kinds of projects.

I am so not a pageant girl, but I signed up for the Miss Junior Florida contest because I thought it would be good experience.

Back in the day after I won my first pageant there was an agency that was getting me work on the side.

I was studying communications and acting, and I decided over the summer that I wanted to work on my acting skills and perform in a pageant. I didn't have any other way of practicing, so I entered the Miss Rhode Island pageant. I ended up wearing a dress that was a $20 rental. It was too short, and there was a hole in the back of it.

That year I went to Miss America, that was the first year I had competed in an adult pageant, if you could call it that. So it was zero to 60.

I came out of a building and this woman stopped me, like, 'You're Miss Universe!' And she was a New Yorker! I'm not used to New Yorkers being fans, because they're so blase about it, you know.

While I wasn't able to do my first walk' as Miss Universe during my pageant, at least I'll be able to do my final walk - and it will happen in the Philippines no less.

I have been feeling the love of South Africans since I got crowned Miss South Africa, even before going to Miss Universe. Because of that, while I was walking on the Miss Universe stage, I knew that I was there as one body, but as I stood on that stage, I stood as millions of South Africans.

Many girls prepare their whole lives for this one moment. For me, I see Miss USA as an opportunity to reach new and greater heights in the future.

Before I won Miss Diva in 2015, I had won the pageant once before in 2012. Back then, it was called Miss Universe India.