Dear Pageant Moms,

Let me start by saying how overlooked and under appreciated you all are. We pageant girls can be a real handful and I know we don't say thank you enough. You’re always there to lace up our dresses, buckle our shoes, make a 5 a.m. coffee run and hairspray that one stubborn hair to our head. We get annoyed with you, tell you you’re crazy and get upset when you tell us to practice our talent routine “just one more time.” But you’re always the first person to run on the stage and scream, “That’s my baby!” when we win, and you always have a big cookie and burger waiting for us when we finally get out of our too-tight dress at the end of the day. You are our biggest supporters and our biggest annoyances on pageant weekend, and we wouldn't want it any other way.

Now, a pageant mom doesn’t have to be your real mom. I have many pageant moms. My sister queen’s mom is my pageant mom. My biggest competitor’s mom is my pageant mom. My princess queen’s grandma and aunt are my pageant moms. My director is my pageant mom. All of these people care are lookout for me and many others, not only over pageant weekend, but in life. They drive 40 minutes out of their way to help us get to work when our car breaks down or help us create our first resume for a job. My pageant moms have opened their homes to me and welcomed me into their family like one of their own and would do anything to help me achieve my goals. These women are an extension of my family, and I wouldn't trade them for the world.

I would not expect anyone not involved in pageantry to understand the sense of family that forms from competing. Yes, it is a competition, but at the end of the day, we are truly a family. When we win we have not one, but many moms taking our picture and crying happy tears. When we lose we have an entire army of women with tissues and a hand-held bedazzler to lift us up and get us back on our feet. They are the champions of tough love and encouragement and will always tell us if our outfit is unflattering and praise use when we are on point!

We may not say it out loud, but we couldn’t do any of it without you. The next time we are telling you to “just leave us alone” or to “stop touching our hair, it’s fine,” just know we really mean “thank you for making us the best we can be.” We will still ask for 5 a.m. coffee runs after keeping you up all night listening to our pageant talk and we will still ask you to smell us and see if we need to shower, but we love you. Each of you make each of us better competitors, people and family.