Lily Weber had never participated in a pageant before, but it turns out the Montz resident might just be a natural.
Weber, a St. Charles Catholic student, recently was crowned as the Queen of the Louisiana Teen Division at the annual Cinderella state pageant, then earned the Spirit of Louisiana award at the organization’s International Scholarship Pageant last month in Dallas.
With the win, Weber earned a $1,000 scholarship and will represent Louisiana at different events during her reign as queen over the next year. She will also participate in different projects to serve her community throughout that span.
“It was really cool … the whole experience has been definitely very new to me and it’s been a lot of fun,” Weber said. “It’s been cool meeting so many new people and in a lot of ways it’s been a surreal experience … I’m very excited to spend a year as a Louisiana queen.”
Weber’s baby sister Oaklyn competed – and won – in in a pageant herself recently, which inspired her to jump into a competition of her own.
“My little sister Oaklyn was in a pageant and they were looking for a teen to compete,” said Weber. “I thought I could do it and it was a chance to try something new.”
She wasn’t interested in going half-speed at it. Weber worked with a pageant coach once a week and also added plenty of practice outside of those lessons, working on her introductory speech, her walk and the cues to follow during competition.
“I had to learn to walk in heels,” Weber said. “How to interview, working on the talent portion (of the pageant). It was a lot of hard work but it was worth it.”
Weber put on a cheer routine for the judges for the talent portion of the show.
“I’ve done cheerleading for about eight years now, so I thought that would be a good way to go,” Weber said. “I thought most people would be doing dance, so I thought it would be fun to do a cheer routine instead.”
Her mother Amy Vinet and stepmother Brennan Flannery both said they were extremely proud of Weber for the work she put in – as well as, of course, the win on the stage.
“Especially with her just being willing to push boundaries,” Flannery said. “She had never done something like this before. This gave her something to work toward. It’s not something that just focuses on looks, but focuses on brains and the will to make an impact on the community.”
Flannery said the entire experience gave Weber a notable boost of self-confidence.
“I think, absolutely, we’ve seen a huge, positive difference there,” Flannery said.
Now, the family has two reigning queens. Weber said that only makes the experience that much better.
“I get to hang out with my sister, who I’m reigning with … it’s crazy,” said Weber. “I really love spending time with all the girls, the director, meeting so many new people. I’ve made a lot of friends from different states.”
The Cinderella Scholarship Pageant was founded in 1976 by Carl David Dunn and Craig Toler and has grown into the largest pageant system of its kind in the world. It is based on a three-tiered system of competitions. Participants start out on the local level and based on their performance can advance to the state level of competition and then proceed to the final level of competition, the International Pageant.
There are teen (ages 13 to 17), miss (ages 10 to 12), miniature (ages 7 to 9), and tot (ages 3 to 6) division as well as a baby pageant.
The competition categories in the teen division are interview, Casual Wear, Formal Wear, Talent and Photogenic.
