| Pageant
winner says problems fade, success comes together on
stage
By Jennifer Taylor
April 17, 2008 | “Click, Click,
Click” is the sound 5-foot-tall Rachel Jensen’s 4-inch
clear, pageant heels make as she walks across the stage.
This sound is a relief to Jensen because this means
the pageant has started and she no longer has the strong
urge to urinate.
“Right before I go on stage
I have this sudden urge to pee, and I know it’s just
nerves, but I still have to talk myself out of it,”
said Jensen.
She said this happens almost every
time she competes in a beauty pageant. When on stage,
Jensen’s strawberry-blonde, shoulder-length hair, freckles
and fierce green eyes stand out from the other girls
in the competition.
Jensen said she generally gets really
nervous right before she performs, but once she’s on
stage she feels in her element. She said it took her
awhile to actually be herself when on stage.
“You spend so much time trying
to be the person you think they want you to be,” said
Jensen, “but then I realized I had to be me and be comfortable
with who I am and that’s all I should require from myself.”
Jensen has been in eight Utah-based
pageants throughout her pageant career. This may not
seem like a lot, but there is so much planning and preparation
that goes into each specific pageant.
Jensen’s mom’s best friend, Jan Ordway,
initially got Jensen interested in pageants. Ordway,
being a pageant director, could see the potential benefits
for Jensen.
Jensen said, “After Jan suggested
that I compete, I really didn’t have a choice in the
matter.”
Ordway helped Jensen start getting
involved by allowing her to do the lighting for a local
pageant that Ordway directed. She was 17 at the time,
which is too young to compete in the Miss America Pageant
system.
Jensen’s mom, Lori Warner, said when
she found out Jensen was going to compete in pageants,
her first thoughts were, “Are you nuts?!?” Then, Warner
said, “I was really proud of Rachel for hanging in there
and not giving up.”
When Jensen first started competing,
it wasn’t easy, her mother said. “She lost a few in
the beginning when she was first starting to get the
hang of things, but it made when she won so much better!”
Jensen, like all others competing,
must have a platform or a service-oriented topic of
what you plan on doing for the community. Jensen’s platform
is, “Bullying: Not a Rite of Passage.” She chose this
as her platform because she got bullied in high school
by a girl who was jealous of her. Jensen won the lead
in the high school play and the girl started rumors
about Jensen making her look bad to her peers. Jensen
said she didn’t realize that this was bullying until
she attended Utah State and wrote a research paper on
the topic. This made her question how many children
in school now are being bullied and how unaware most
people are about the issue.
“Children should not have to
go through being bullied it is uncalled for. Sometimes
children even commit suicide as a result of being bullied,
which is called bullycide,” said Jensen.
To promote her platform, Jensen has
helped Utah first lady Mary Kaye Huntsman develop and
carry out a program called “Power in You.” According
to the “Power in You” website, this program is “a peer-to-peer,
heart-to-heart program designed to help teenagers deal
with various obstacles. Mary Kaye Huntsman has provided
teenagers with inspirational stories from other young
people who have faced difficulties similar to yours…teenagers
have the power to make positive choices and have a healthy
attitude regardless of the trials they face.”
Jensen said her pageant experience
has shaped her to who she’s become today. She admits
that it sounds pretty dorky, but her experience has
helped her to find who she is and to be satisfied with
herself.
She told about a time when she was
15 and had a disorder called reflex-sympathetic dystrophy,
or RSD. This disorder is sometimes called CRPS or complex
regional pain syndrome. According to the RSD Syndrome
Association, RSD “is a chronic, painful, and progressive
neurological condition that affects skin, muscles, joints,
and bones.” This disorder all started with a small scratch
on Jensen’s big toe. Jensen’s nervous system malfunctioned.
Her nerves misfired and sent pain signals to her brain.
Her brain responded like it would in any traumatic situation
and tried to let her know something was wrong. Jensen’s
whole foot began to swell and it quickly spread to her
leg, and then thigh, until the pain made it unbearable
for Jensen to walk.
When Jensen’s disorder worsened she
was sent to Primary Children’s Hospital for in-patient
physical therapy. Her mom helped her check- in, but
then had to leave to go to some meetings that couldn’t
be rescheduled. Jensen said when she saw her mom walk
down the steps and out the door she leaned on her crutches
and started to weep.
“I couldn’t see any promise
in my future. My life was at a stand still and I never
felt more stuck or alone in my life,” said Jensen.
When she attended Miss Utah the second
time the pageant sponsored the Children’s Miracle Network.
The sponsors wanted the girls to take a tour of Primary
Children’s Hospital. Jensen had been back to this hospital
a number of times since she had been hospitalized, but
for some reason this time was different. When she saw
the spot where she wept seven years earlier she was
taken aback as emotion washed over her.
“All that went through my mind
was: If you would have told that 15-year-old girl where
she would be seven years later and the things she had
done, there’s no way she would have believed it.” Not
many girls Jensen’s age could name off most of the things
she has accomplished, especially winning pageants and
attending Miss Utah.
In order to attend Miss Utah, one
must win a local pageant. Jensen has been crowned Miss
Cache Valley 2007 and Miss Herriman 2005. This means
that she has attended Miss Utah twice. Each time was
unique.
The first time Jensen attended Miss
Utah, “it was torture,” she said.
“Within the first day it was
all about survival I had to muster up the strength to
make it through the rest of the week.” She said she
allowed herself to get sucked into the mind games the
other girls were playing. She said the girls would give
demeaning looks at her to make her feel small and intimidated.
Or they’d ask how she did, but she knew they just wanted
to know if she messed up so they could make themselves
feel better.
“I felt like I didn’t deserve
to be there,” said Jensen.
She explained at this point in her
life she still relied on other people’s appraisal to
help boost her self-confidence. She had not yet discovered
who she was exactly. Most of the girls there were tall
and stick-thin. “I was 5 feet and not very happy with
my body at that point and time,” she said.
Her second experience with Miss Utah
was amazing, she said. She had absolutely no regrets.
Jensen said, “I stopped worrying about things I couldn’t
control, and started putting energy into things that
I could, like my performance.” At this point it all
came together for Jensen. She did not win, but in her
heart she knew she had won over herself.
“I know I did the best I could
I worked really hard and there’s nothing more that I
could have done to improve my performance,” Jensen said.
Every competition has a talent portion.
Jensen performs a monologue. This is unique as most
girls play a musical instrument, sing or dance for their
talent. Jensen’s monologue is humorous and entertaining.
It takes place in a psychologist’s office where a woman
is complaining about her husband and his horrible, annoying
habits.
On the contrary, Jensen said that
her family has always supported her to do whatever she
wanted. She said she knew her family would always be
there for her no matter what. She said she always wanted
to make them proud and happy.
Warner said, “There are so many times
I’ve been proud of Rachel…graduating from high school,
winning Miss Herriman and Miss Cache Valley and also
when she walked out of the hospital after having RSD.”
Warner said it’s unusual for a kid to walk, especially
as soon as Rachel did, after having this disorder. Some
kids lose their limbs and she said that she was proud
of Jensen for fighting and not giving up easily.
Growing up Jensen was a real tomboy.
She said, “I would always wake up early on Saturday
and go help my grandpa do chores on the farm.” She always
thought her grandpa valued her boy cousins, and grandsons,
work more than hers. She thought this until she was
about eight and her grandpa and she were breaking 2x4’s
on their thighs. Jensen went to break one and there
were nails on the end of it which gashed her leg open.
She said she’ll never forget what her grandpa said that
day.
He said, “I’ve just lost my best
worker.” Jensen said, “It really meant a lot to me.”
Another funny thing about her and
working with her grandpa is when she got home from work,
no matter if she was wearing heels and dress clothes,
she would go help her grandpa patch fences and do work
on the farm. She said it was difficult, but the memories
have lasted a long time.
Jensen recalls when she was younger
she wanted to be a marine biologist. She said she has
always loved killer whales and dolphins and still does.
One of the highlights of her life was when she went
to Hawaii and swam with dolphins at Sea World.
A few years ago, a remarkable opportunity
presented itself to Jensen. There was an open position
as an intern at the governor’s office. Jensen applied
and got the position. She said she loved her experience.
Before being an intern, she wasn’t exactly sure what
she wanted to do with her life.
While working in the governor’s office
she was able to watch the governor’s press secretary
and liked how she interacted with everyone. It was then
Jensen realized that she would love to do the same thing.
She is attending Utah State University and majoring
in journalism with a minor in family, consumer and human
development. Jensen plans to graduate this summer.
After graduating, Jensen plans on
continuing with the “Power in You” program and then
she’s uncertain of where life will take her.
“I think the unknown is kind
of fun I love the fact that I don’t know where I’ll
be in a year. It’s exciting to me,” explained Jensen.
However, Jensen does say she’s done
competing. She said she’s moved on, that she’s learned
a lot, but she wants to experience new things and see
what else life might throw at her. Jensen said she loved
her experience and wouldn’t trade it for anything. “I
must admit, my absolute favorite part about doing pageants
was when they were over and I finally got to go to Wendy’s!”
Jensen exclaimed.
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