Life of a beauty queen: How a Garland pageant builds confidence in Asian American youth

Eight-year-old Keylee Charron was about 5 years old when she first participated in a pageant. 

She now wears the crown of a Little Princess. 

A Southlake resident, Keylee, said she liked taking part in a pageant as it helped her build her confidence. Her father, Kenneth Charron, said they first heard about the Miss Asia America International Pageant at a Thai temple in Dallas.
 
“At first, I was a little bit shy,” Keylee said. “I really wanted to get the experience like a model.”
 
The pageant first started in 2017 and ever since, has been hosted in Garland once every two years, said Sax Kalayaboon, a director of the pageant. A group of enthusiastic residents, including Kalayaboon himself and Garland’s Asian American community leader Jennifer Nguyen, was behind the inception of the pageant. The vision was simple: to empower young Asian American women.
 
“We want to build the confidence,” Kalayaboon said.
 
Keylee said while taking part in a pageant, the key is to make sure the makeup is done right. She said she likes practicing makeup at home and eye makeup is her favorite part.
 
Outside the glamorous world of pageants, she is a regular kid who goes to school, loves to learn about galaxies and speaks fluent Thai. When she grows up, she hopes to be either a scientist or a makeup artist, she said.
 
“I like space,” Keylee said. “I want to study about space.”
 
Kalayaboon said the main sponsor of the pageant is Cali Saigon Mall, an epicenter of the booming Vietnamese community in the Dallas suburb. The rest of the revenue comes from ticket sales as friends and families attend to show their support for participants. The turnout is huge, he said.

What started as a small pageant with only a couple of categories grew over the years to include four competing categories, including Miss Asia America International for ages 18 to 28, Miss Teen Asia America International for ages 13 to 17, Pre-teen Princess for ages 9 to 12 and Little Princess for ages 5 to 8.  

Kalayaboon said there were a little less than 20 participants in the first year of the pageant, and in the subsequent years, that number grew to nearly 40 in one of the years.

“We are not only focused on the beauty of outside,” Nguyen. “We help them promote the beauty inside … feel better and proud of where they are coming from.”
 
She said the idea is to help the young participants understand that there is nothing wrong with promoting and being proud of their own heritage. Kalayaboon echoed, adding the pageant is open to everyone who has some connection to Asian culture.
 
Once a queen or princess wins the crown, they hold that position for two years until the next pageant comes along. The last pageant happened in 2024, and the reigning queens and princesses will pass on their titles this year in August to the winners.

“My dream as a community leader is that … a beauty queen will step up and take charge in the future,” Nguyen said. “It’s a lot of work.”
 
Nguyen explained that it is not just a mere title; it comes with great responsibility. A queen represents the Asian community, she said. The higher purpose of the pageant is to act as a launching pad for young women to become community leaders someday.
 
What makes you a good candidate to be a princess or a queen? Kalayaboon said the qualities that they look for include good academic standing,  a clean background and someone who is a role model. Extracurricular achievements are also weighed in the process.

In 2024,  22-year-old Selina Woodrow took part in the pageant and won. She has now held the crown for almost two years.
 
Woodrow, a first-generation American whose mother is from the Philippines, lives in Fort Worth. When she was 14 years old, Woodrow first took part in the Miss Asia America International Pageant in the teenage category and was the second runner-up, she said. Her first stint with pageants was when she was 8 years old, she said, and that helped her come out of her shell at an early age.
 
“I put a little makeup on … my crown and sash, and then I feel like a princess,” she said.
 
Woodrow said this pageant helped build her overall confidence, taught her to speak up for herself and helped her improve her posture, poise, things like that.
 
“It really starts in your head,” she said. “No one knows you’re nervous unless you tell them.”
 
Woodrow is finishing her associate’s degree in music from Tarrant County College and recently got accepted to Texas Woman’s University in a music therapy program. She said she hopes to get her master’s degree someday in music therapy.
 
A typical day in Woodrow’s life during events involves waking up early, doing her makeup and writing down her devotions or affirmations, feeding her cat, steaming her outfits and then getting on the road. When it comes to wellness, Woodrow said she likes to keep it simple. A brisk walk, riding a bike and finding a good headspace does the job for her.
 
“I like to keep my head stress-free,” she said. “As long as I am not stressed, I am happy.”
 
In college applications, Woodrow said the pageant goes on top, as it shows how well-rounded she is as a person. Being a pageant queen is no easy feat; it requires time management skills, hanging out with different crowds, navigating complex situations, etc. This pageant also helped Woodrow get closer to her Filipino roots and even make a new set of friends.
 
“Any time we have these events, it feels like no time has passed between us, and we get to catch up,” she said. “I really do look forward to that.”

Jana Aguilar, 18, also from Fort Worth, who is a reigning queen from the 2024 pageant in the teen category, said she grew up watching Miss Universe. She was not always interested in taking part in pageants herself, she said.
 
At the beginning of her experience as a first-time pageant participant, Aguilar said she was very shy. As she attended orientations and started getting familiar with the process, she started loving it.
 
“I remember having to learn how to walk and present yourself on stage,” she said. “It was like pushing myself out of my comfort zone but eventually I came to love it.”
 
Aguilar comes from an athletic background, having been trained in rhythmic gymnastics and swimming, which taught her the basics of taking part in competitions. Apart from sports, she said she has always been interested in beauty and fashion but never really thought she would be able to do it.
 
She  juggled pageant with high school and advanced placement classes, but said it was not too difficult as the scheduled events were on the weekends. Balancing it all made the experience more enjoyable, she said.

Aguilar, whose mother is from Thailand, said growing up in Fort Worth, she was not as much around the Asian American community.  When she started coming to Garland more often for the pageant and events, she saw how large the community was. Being a part of a community that shares similar values and morals brought her closer to her roots.
 
“I realized there is a place where I can feel at home,” she said.