Heather Latter
Alyssa Chiasson has a lot to be proud of.
While she didn’t bring home the Miss Teenage Canada crown from Toronto earlier this month, she did a superb job representing Rainy River District—finishing in the top 10 out of 82 contestants from across the country.
“It was a lot different than I had expected,” the 17-year-old admitted during an interview last week after she returned home.
She particularly noted that there were more girls competing than she initially thought.
“We were told there would be 70 girls but there was 82,” she said.
With Chiasson’s original goal being to make the top 20 out of the 70 girls, cracking the top 10 out of 82 certainly exceeded it.
“For us, it’s basically like her winning,” said her mom, Susan.
“We’re very proud of her.”
Chiasson said the week-long experience in Toronto was a lot of fun and she made many new friends.
There also were swimwear and evening wear portions in both the preliminary round and during the final show, which was streamed live online and drew more than 600 viewers.
Chiasson also competed in the optional talent gala—doing a dance routine to Taylor Swift’s “Shake it Off.”
“It was pretty stressful,” Chiasson admitted about preparing for the final show.
She noted there was a mishap with some of the girls’ shoes breaking prior to going on stage, which only raised the stress level.
During the show, Chiasson said she had a feeling she might make it to the top 20.
“But you really never know,” she added, noting there were contestants she really expected to be in the top five that didn’t even make the top 20.
Fortunately, Chiasson was called and joined the 19 other girls across the front of the stage.
“It was exciting to hear my name called,” she enthused, adding the next thing she thought about was what she had to do for the swimwear competition, which was set to go next.
“I just had to start prepping for the next thing,” she remarked.
In the swimwear portion, Chiasson sported a black two-piece on the stage.
“It’s more about goal-setting and being healthy,” she said about the swimwear competition.
“If you are a role model for across Canada, you have to be healthy,” Chiasson stressed. “You can’t just be sitting on your couch eating junk food.
“And it take a lot of confidence to go on stage practically naked,” she added.
“So that shows you have a lot of confidence.”
She said she didn’t have any problems wearing a swimsuit on stage and hopes people don’t take it the wrong way.
Chiasson then was called as one of the top 10 contestants, who then had to partake in the evening wear portion.
She donned a beautiful sparkly blue gown as she graced the stage.
“I thought I did really well, especially compared to the preliminary round,” Chiasson said.
“Once I got on the stage, I wasn’t nervous,” she added. “I just went out there, did my best, and felt really good about it.”
Unfortunately, when the top five names were called, Chiasson’s wasn’t one of them.
While disappointed she didn’t advance to the final round, where the top five answered judges’ questions, Chiasson was happy she made it as far as she did.
“I learned a lot from the experience,” she noted.
“It was an amazing and I am sad to see it come to an end.”
Chiasson also thanked everyone for their support and encouragement along the way.
“It was cool to know so many people were watching and cheering me on,” she said.
“You represented yourself, your family, your town, and your province beautifully Alyssa,” wrote one viewer.
The competition was won by Sarah Wojcik of Red Deer, Alta.
Chiasson, meanwhile, said she’ll be holding one final fundraiser at Boston Pizza this Monday (Aug. 24) from 4-8 p.m., receiving a portion of any pasta dishes sold.
She also will be on hand with a scrapbook and sharing her Miss Teenage Canada experience with customers.
Although she had a wonderful pageant experience this year, having also participated in Miss North Ontario back in May, Chiasson said she’s going to take a break from pageants.
“I’m going to focus on school and work for a while,” she noted, although she also would like to put some time and effort into trying her hand at modelling.
In fact, Chiasson said she’d like to try out for Canada’s Next Top Model.
And when she’s older, she’d like to give the Miss Universe Canada pageant a go.
“I really enjoy it—I don’t want to stop,” she enthused.
