Palmer High senior runner-up in Alaska teen pageant

PALMER — Emily Yannatone was the only Valley contestant and first runner-up in the Miss Alaska Outstanding Teen competition at Anchorage’s Wendy Williamson Auditorium on June 5.

Yannatone, 17, will be a senior at Palmer High School this fall, and had never participated in a pageant before. But she said she was excited about the scholarship and volunteer opportunities associated with the competition.

She first got involved in the Miss Alaska Outstanding Teen after participating in the Great Alaska Talent Competition at Fur Rendezvous. Representatives of the pageant approached Yannatone after the event, encouraging her to showcase her talents and personality at the junior Miss Alaska competition.

Yannatone and her mother, Rebecca Young, were initially skeptical of the event, prejudiced by the stereotypical image of a beauty pageant. After giving it a chance, however, the mother-daughter pair said they were impressed by the opportunities that come with participating.

“Out of all the year, our main focus is community service and scholarship money,” Yannatone said.

In order to raise scholarship money for the pageant, Yannatone and all the other competitors had to sell advertisements in the event’s program. This work, however, would ultimately result in scholarship money. Although more scholarship money is offered for higher placement in the competition, there are also monetary awards for winning a certain section of the event, and every contestant won a prize regardless of her performance.

More than $87,000 in scholarship awards was made available to contestants of both Miss Alaska and Miss Alaska Outstanding Teen, according to Miss Alaska Executive Director Gina Jones.

In addition to scholarship opportunities, the pageant also served as an avenue for community service. Yannatone and other participants organized events and started programs to raise money for the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, an organization that promotes health care for young people around the world.

The actual competition consists of five phases: private interview, lifestyle and fitness, talent, eveningwear and onstage question. The private interview and talent portions counted most towards final scores, with judges evaluating each contestant in every phase. Participants were ultimately trying to win the affection of the crowd, though Young was impressed by the pageant’s focus on talent and personality.

“You have all the stereotypical pageant ideas, but they very much stressed modesty,” Young said.

Yannatone won runner-up with her speaking platform, “Supporting Music Education,” and her performance of the song “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” from the musical “Funny Girl.” She said that the best part about preparing for the competition was working with professionals who had previously appeared on Broadway.

“During the middle of my song I hit this note, and I came back in strong with another note that was pretty high,” Yannatone said. “All of a sudden the audience was screaming, they were cheering.”

Since the Miss Alaska Outstanding Teen competition, the directors have talked with Yannatone about gathering interest and organizing local competitions in the Valley, specifically in Palmer and Wasilla. She is also looking forward to participating in the Miss Alaska pageant next year, as her age will qualify her for the senior competition.

For now, however, Yannatone said she appreciates the exposure that the competition gave her as a singer and model, and the friends that she made. She is also excited about the coming school year. At Palmer High she participates in Alaska Youth Court, student government, International Club, Boys and Girls Club and choir. She intends to put her scholarship awards toward an Alaska school, Oklahoma City University or City College of New York.

For more information about the Miss Alaska competitions, visit missalaskapageant.com

Contact Kaden Weaver at 352-2270 or kaden.weaver@frontiersman.com.