 Hello, welcome back to Quok Talk. I took a little break, had to do stuff out, you know, as one does. So anyway, welcome back. If you've never seen my show before, I'm Crystal. And this is a platform for us to talk about sensitive, provocative, socially important issues that pertain to women and our bodies. So please join us today. We have a very fun and glamorous topic that of beauty pageant. They're all giggling here. They're like, well, it's not that glamorous. Is it? So today we're going to be talking about beauty pageants and the myths. So myth busters. Welcome, ladies. Can you see these? If I had like this clap kind of thing, you see. Good morning. In my head, I have this song because it's a beauty pageant song in Hong Kong. And everyone knows it. And then everyone kind of does that beauty pageant wave. Do you guys have a beauty pageant wave? Is there such a thing? Everyone thinks that it's something along the lines. But truth be told, when I see a little kid on the side of the street, when they're watching the parade and I'm in a car, I freak out. And I kind of just like... You look like you're being local. You're like, ah. People look at me funny because I'm so pale, but I mean, you look a lot more local than I do. Are you three all local? Let's get it off. Well, I was born in New York, but I grew up here. I went to Pun Ho School and then I went to UH Manoa. Okay, so let's back up a little bit. You guys all introduce yourselves. Tell your names. And I'll try to remember your titles because, you know... Okay, so Stephanie, let's start with Stephanie. Okay, so my name is Stephanie Wang and I was the 2015 Miss Chinatown, Hawaii. I was born in New York and I moved here when I was six years old. So I grew up in Hawaii, attended Pun Ho School and then later University of Hawaii at Manoa where I studied Chinese language and literature. Wow, what are you going to do with that? Forget it, I'll pull back. I promise myself we're not going to do those stupid questions like, oh, where are you going to be in five years? Forget I asked you anything. Unless you want to tell us. Well, right now I really want to go into writing, so hopefully I can do Chinese writing and English writing. Great, great place for all that multicultural. Good stuff. Okay, Lindsay? Hi, my name is Lindsay. I was your 2015 Miss Wei Chinese. I am 22 years old. I went to Wangela High School. I'm from Honolulu, Hawaii, born and raised. And yeah, I'm currently majoring in healthcare administration. I hope to graduate this fall and... What do you say hope to? Oh, because it's a lot of pressure. Okay, that's fantastic. Great. And anything else you want to share that we need to know about you? I'm left-handed. It's a weird fact. Okay. All right. Good morning, everyone. My name is Tara Driver. I am your Miss Chinatown, Hawaii, 2016. I just competed at the Miss Hawaii pageant to represent the Chinese community of Hawaii as well as the Chinatown community. I just graduated from Ilanee School, and I'll be attending New York University in the fall to study engineering with the focus in construction management and urban planning. I have been born and raised here. Kaimuki, local girl. Yeah, I'll use my home, but I'm excited to branch out and learn more about other places and other cultures so that I can bring it back here for everyone to appreciate. Excellent, excellent. So I'm so glad you are all so different. You all have your own personalities and everything comes across that way. But a lot of times pageants tend to pigeonhole girls who join these things and you become just this walking, beautiful body that represents something that becomes a cliche and some people like to criticize, especially feminists who think, what, beauty pageant on you exploiting your body? So let's just start with how you feel about beauty pageants and whether your experience in it had changed your perception of it or some myths that you really want to put on the table today and say it's not like that. Oh, definitely. There's definitely a stereotype when it comes to pageants. You think beauty pageants are, you know, leggy girls with maybe blonde hair or, you know, who only care about their looks, but it's definitely, from my experience, I know that it's completely not like that. I realized that everyone is beautiful in their own way. Beauty comes in all shapes and sizes and colors and it's just, you know, like, from my experience, I don't feel like I've been self-conscious about the way I look or... You don't feel judged? In a way, I mean, it is competition, but I think you're competing more so with yourself. Oh, that's interesting. Do you feel that way before? Competing with yourself? During competition, I would definitely say that it's more competing with yourself than anything, but there is an expectation to always look a certain way and to wear certain things, hold yourself and speak with the right words at the right time. And so I think that... So you can't talk like Trump, who says, oh, well, I don't care about that. I don't think anyone... You can't even pull it off very well, so... Yeah. Okay. But yeah, there is, I feel like there are always people watching you and telling you that you should be doing certain things a certain way, but at the end of the day, you have to evaluate yourself and see, you know what, am I happy with the image that I'm portraying because if that's the authentic me of which I'm proud and I want other people to be proud of as well, then that's all you can do. Okay. Lindsay, do you have anything else to add? Yeah, I can definitely agree to both. Yeah, I mean, for me, you know, beauty pageants was something I looked at as, oh, you have to be very proper and very confident and when I went into this pageant, I had no pageant experience at all. I was very shy. I was a tomboy and I still am a tomboy. So why did you want to do it then? I wanted to do the Miss Chinatown Hoy pageant specifically because it's always been a dream, a childhood dream of mine to do that and yeah, I mean, growing up, my dad would take me to Chinatown and we'd see the queens and I'd be like, wow, I want to be that one day. So yeah, I mean, the opportunity came up as I got older and I just kind of took the opportunity and it really helped me to grow and overcome a lot of obstacles in my life as well. Okay, so you brought out the fact that you had this aspiration when you were a young little girl and that just kind of reminds me of a lot of young girls here, you know, when they look at social media, when they look at all these fashion magazines, they go, oh, I want to be a model, I want to do this and do that. Do you think there's any danger in that type of, you know, over kind of obsession with how they look, especially young girls, they get too involved or self-critical and what are the dangers of a beauty pageant type of a, you know, focus that may turn their values maybe not as, you know, balanced as it should be? I think just trying to fit into a mold instead of embracing who you are and just becoming everything that you're not in the process, just losing yourself in general, I think that's very easy. Have you seen people do that or have you confessed to doing that yourselves? Is that part of the process, to lose yourself? Yeah, I've had that experience before. It's very easy to, especially if you look up to people and you're new to an experience, it's really easy to tend to listen to everything other people say. So taking, like, getting external affirmations about what you should look like, how you should act and even just like wardrobe choices and everything. Everyone has their own opinion and there's no right or wrong choice but I think the most important thing to remember if you find yourself forgetting who you are is to just re-center yourself into... How do you do that? How do you guys find the comfort and the confidence for your own body? Food, mud. What? Climate tree. Those are all things that I grew up with and those are my foundations and I find that the easiest way to do that and to go back to wherever it is if you find yourself, like, with a little bit larger of a head than you should, is to just, like, go anywhere, it's yourself in nature, a place where no one knows you with or without your full face of makeup on, you know? And just go back, yes, exactly, go back to your truest, most natural state and that's when you kind of remind yourself that you're just a human and you're very small. You're in the perfect place for that, right? Hawaii is just, you know, nature and beauty is all in one and you guys are reflecting that. So going back again to, like, the actual pageant process. So are there some things that we should know about that kind of happen behind the scenes that are, you know, of interest to the general public that, like, what, they really do that or... Oh. Butt glue. Oh! I said butt glue! Sorry, I did that. That's the first thing, right? You guys are so silly. I mean, look at that photo. There's, like, nothing proper about it. That's actually what we look like in real life, you know? It's funny faces all the time. Good. And laugh and joke. It's not all just about smiles and proper and, yeah. Okay, so please definitely define what butt glue is. Okay, so during the swimsuit phase, in order for the bottom piece to not, you know, look saggy or ride up or, you know... Okay, okay. ...become unshapen, you want it to be nice and flat. So there's, you can apply a spray on glue. Or roll on. Or roll on. It's very warm. Roll glue, regular glue. There's Elmer's glue. Arching craft glue. Absolutely. Oh my gosh. Check it out. It really, really hard. And then you just stick it on and then you literally stick your swimsuit the way you want it to. So when you're walking, it just stays there. You don't want it to shift while you're walking. Right? And you all did that? Yes, it's a staple. I mean, anyone who goes to the beach knows that bathing suits don't look like the way they do on stage. There are extra precautions that need to be taken into consideration. Yeah, but then what if you have to go to, when you go to the bathroom, you put it back on, you have to re-stick it. Then you have to like, the skin just leads your body. So there you have all skin on you. And glue. It saves on for days no matter how hard you scrub it. What I do is I use, I kind of like recycle the glue to hold on my talent costume afterwards just to make sure that that doesn't go anywhere either. I use the environmental. Exactly. Good tip if you have evening gown after or some kind of Cheongsam face, you just throw baby powder on. So it doesn't stick to your dress. You can see your Chinese dress. Then you're fine. You'd have like white all over your spray ton. What about your boobs? You have to do something to stick like your swimsuit on top, right? Duck tape. Duck tape. That double-tape, right? That double-sided one? I don't like duck tape. Seriously, that's going to ricochet on. I don't know this trick. What is duck tape? It's something that electricians use. I know what duck tape is. I don't know the trick. I don't know the trick. Okay, please. Enlighten us. Okay, so during pageant there's like, you know, a lot of people backstage on the side and you just run out in your bathing suit and you know, you hold your boobs up and they just take you. So they squeeze whatever cleavage you can get and put it together. How do you not show it? Well, bathing suit or Cheongsam. You know, the dress is very like... It's all covered. Yeah. So Tara, obviously you don't need to use it. She doesn't need it. Exactly. So now that we're on the topic of boobs, what about the pressures of that? Because a lot of Asian girls are pretty flat-chested. And you know, they're always dirty old men who are out there to check out your bodies because you are. You're presenting yourself on stage, especially with the bathing suit aspect of the contest. So how do you feel about that? Do you feel, you know, has that changed your kind of perception of what's perfect size or what you need to do to show or not show it? Are there pressures like that? I think now it's swimsuit phase is not really about, you know, becoming the perfect size. I think it's really just embracing your body and everything that you are. So if you have like bigger hips, like, you know, girls are showing that off, you know, instead of hiding it or trying to, you know, slim down in the waist or the hips or the thighs. That must be an American thing though, right? Because like the pageants in Hong Kong or China, everyone wants to be stick thin and they don't want to be proud of the extra, you know, gifts. I think it just depends from culture to culture because everyone has such different standards and definitions of beauty. And the ones in Hong Kong are very different from the ones that we have in Hawaii and even our standards here are so different from those of like Texas, New York, California. So I think that, I mean, for Hawaii specifically, people are very comfortable being natural. Like our definition of beauty is showing up in a bathing suit, like beach clothes with maybe mascara on. If that, but I mean if you show yourself like that, then it's perfectly acceptable. Whereas I have friends in Texas who say that they never go out with their hair done. Okay. Without their hair done. Without their hair done. Yes, yes. Okay. And so I think that, I mean like for Hawaii in particular, we have so many different influences from all over the world. So we're a lot more comfortable helping women to express whoever their identities are as opposed to conforming to the stick thin standard or the curvy or the six pack of abs, you know? Right. Like it's just, there are so many different. I'm so glad. I'm so happy. You guys are so healthy in the best way. We're going to take a quick break and come back and continue talking. We're going to get, we learned about but cream and duct tape. So when we come back, we'll find out a little bit more. Okay. Don't go away. Aloha. I'm Chantal Seville, the host of The Savvy Chick Show, which you can watch every Wednesday at 11 a.m. on thinktechhawaii.com. On The Savvy Chick Show, we are all about inspiring and empowering women and girls to be the best they can be by having amazing guests from all around the world. So we hope you'll join us every Wednesday at 11 a.m. Aloha. Hey, everybody. My name is David Chang, and I am a new host for the show, The Art of Thinking Smart. I'm really excited to be able to share with you how to get the smart edge in life. We're going to have awesome guests in the military, business, political, nonprofit world. So no matter what background you're from, we have something for you. Please join us every other Thursday at 10 a.m. at thinktechhawaii.com or on The Art of Thinking Smart.com. I look forward to seeing you. For a very healthy summer, watch Viva Hawaii. We're giving you the best tips and with our best health coach here. So Viva health coach. Viva la comida saludable. This is Steve Katz. I'm a marriage and family therapist, and I do shrink wrap, which is now going to every other week, all during the summer and maybe forever after. Take care of your mental health this summer. Have a good time. Do what's fun and take good care of yourself. Bye-bye. Welcome back to QuackTalk. Again, we have here Beauty Queens. And I hate that because it just puts a title on you and you don't see them. But if you listen to these girls talk, you know. These are not just Beauty Queens. I mean, gee. Stephanie, Lindsay, and Tara back here. So we were talking about some fun things. Some things behind the scenes. You know, when I was driving my daughter to her class this morning, she's 13 and she asked, so what do they do if they, you know, get a pimple on the day of it? Or how long does it take for you to get, you know, your hair made up? What are, you know, I'm sure there's some issues like stress-related or what if you get your period during that day? Are there like stories like that that we should, like nobody talks about? Let me hear pimples. You kind of just have to anticipate it because it's such a high-stress period of time. Right. And I mean, as idealistic as it would be, yeah, we all have pimples when we go on stage. Okay, so it's part of it. Okay. And then during pageant week two, you spend so much time with other women that it's almost inevitable that someone's going to have their period, which means that everyone's going to have their period. That's contagious. Don't bring on me right now. Stay away. Are there, were there some experiences that you were kind of not so favorable that you care to share? Are there some horrible things with the different girls, you know, the bitchiness and all that stuff? I haven't had that experience so far. Really? I've been fortunate. You guys, Hawaii is so nice. Nobody does anything bitchy, right? You know, though, I have a friend. I just, well, I competed in this Hawaii this past year. And one of the contestants is from California and she just moved to, to Hawaii to study, but she had completed, competed in the Miss California pageant. And she said that like there were girls there who slashed dresses. They would like ruin them with oil or whatever there was backstage. And that's just normal culture. Oh, normal culture. Right, absolutely. Okay. It's, it's so strange. And so she was so like happy to be in a state like Hawaii where everyone is so supportive of each other because like I've never been in a pageant where there was tension or drama between the girls. But I didn't realize that that was something exclusive to, that was like a part of, A pro exclusive to Hawaii. Right, right. Well, you are blessed with the niceness of the island. Lindsay, you were voted Miss Congeniality in the Miss UA SA Chinatown pageant, correct? Now, what does that mean? You know, I, after the movie, you should think more seriously about it. Oh my goodness. But why do you think they have this particular award? Do you think it's because there's an assumption that most girls are bitchy and snobby and that they need to, you know, highlight the fact that there is actually somebody nice? What is that all about? No, I think it's just an award that, you know, just highlights the girl that loves everyone and cares about everybody and, you know, isn't afraid to be her true self around the other girls. And yeah, it was a privilege being voted amongst the other girls, especially meeting them only two weeks prior. Yeah, it was a lot of fun and, yeah. Okay, great. You know, I confess that I was part of Miss Chinatown years and years ago before you guys were born, but I remember one thing that I'll take away from it is before the pageant, everyone was so fun and friendly and everyone was so good to each other. And then the day after, after the titles were given and the fact that I won, people immediately turned, like the girls who were my biggest best buddy like that night before, all of a sudden just gave me the cold shoulder. And it was just like a real hit of reality, like what people do when, depending on where you are. How do you feel about that? Do you see people treating you different or? Well, the beginning of a pageant experience is a lot different from, you know, the last week of the pageant when it suddenly hits you that it's coming up. And I do see a change, like there's a shift in seriousness. I guess some girls like to, I mean, everyone has to focus their energy in different ways, right? So for me, I like to, I like to, like sometimes I like to be alone and sometimes I like to just like, you know, replenish my good energy because you know, from all the stress, it's so stressful. And I mean, some girls do the same thing. So you see some girls kind of excluding themselves at the end, you know, just to focus their energy, because it has a competition. And I mean, although I love all the girls and we, it's a sisterhood. That's right, I saw from the pictures, it really feels like you guys have a nice bonding with your experience. Okay, so it's a sisterhood. And even though things change at the end, everyone knows that, and we're all in this together, it's like experience, it's not just a bunch of girls get thrown into a room and it's like, okay, compete. It's a whole, it's like months leading up and you get to know each other very well. You create friendships. I mean, we've been friends for like more than two years now. Would you say it's a good platform, kind of like a metaphor of life, you know, your social skills and competition and challenges you have to face? Would you say that's a big experience? That's what you take away from it? I think it makes you grow up really quickly. I mean, I was one of the youngest contestants this past year at 17 years old when I stepped on this stage. And so at that point, you have to be able to advocate for your personal platform. You have to be able to hold yourself well in front of an audience. You have to be able to conduct a 10 and a half minute interview with the judges. Was it that long? Yeah, and I loved every second of it because of all of the preparation that you put into it. You know, you get out what you put in, but it definitely does make you learn a specific skill set that is applicable to a lot more than pageantry. Like, all of my college interviews were so much fun because, like, a one-on-one interview was nothing in comparison to having seven people firing questions at you rapid fire, you know? What were some questions you guys didn't like or just dreaded? Look at that picture of you. So cute with that. Oh! Is that what it was for? That was for the celebrities on their pets fashion show as part of the annual pet expo. So that little dog was up for adoption that afternoon, so if you want to go check that out this year, then you can find yourself a nice little or big dog, whatever your preference is. Okay. Great. Wait, who was... Sorry, I didn't want to mean to cut somebody else. Did somebody say something? Oh, no. Just a little that we don't like to have. Oh, yes, yes, yes. Thank you. Oh, a question that we don't like to have. What were you saying off-screen? Well, your year, I heard that there was the Zodiac question, right? Oh! That was like a... They just threw that out there just to like throw us off a little bit. Like what? It was... Well, we were in a Chinese culture pageant. Okay. So they were like, can you name the 12 Zodiac... What? It feels like a test question. In order. Or what was? Yeah. Right. Um... Um... I was like, I'm a monkey, and my brother is a year younger than me. He's a rooster, so I was kind of trying to go in order based on people I knew. Right, right. But I mean, I heard you guys explain that the judges didn't really care if you knew all of the Zodiac animals. What were they looking for? They wanted to see how we would react because it was such an off question. Okay. So how would you like hold yourself in that question under pressure? Right. You guys should be allowed... You know what I think next time they have pageant? The contestants should be allowed to ask the judges a question. You can! You really? Absolutely can. I mean, has anybody done that? I mean, it's just like this. It's a conversation with the group of people in front of you and you have done like preliminary research. You've definitely Googled them at least three times. Oh, really? So you need to know where they're coming from. Right, right. So I mean, by that point, there's entry level knowledge on both ends. Good, okay. And so, I mean, you can. You might not get a lengthy response, but it is a conversation first and foremost. Going back to the pre... When we just started the show about the whole preconceptions of beauty pageants, when guys approach you because you have this title, do they have certain expectations or misconceptions of what you're supposed to be like? Well, we can take a lot of photos with people. Right. There must be a lot of dirty old men who are going to love to know. There's a chance for that. Oh, okay, let's take a choice. So if somebody's like, hey, oh, they'll like call. And they'll like, yeah. They put their hand on your lower hip, right? But then they... Sometimes they go lower and they just go... And it's on your upper hip, right? So you move it up. Yeah, you just... Okay. You know, yeah. And they get the hint. But it's really difficult because a lot of times those are people who have a lot of influence or power. And so you might not necessarily be in a position where you feel comfortable, like publicly saying, please move your hand. And it's really... It makes me really sad to think about the fact that I can't publicly express that concern over my own body. And so it's something that I get upset about. And so if I see a girl who's being... Just for lack of a better word, attacked by one of these people, then I'll like come in and I'll move the hand. Oh, good. So that's for the sister getting, right? Let's take all the picture together, you know? We'll just help each other out. That's great. Yeah. But what about boyfriend situations? Have you... Has that affected or just, you know, social life? You get the dirty old men who always want to do that and they will always be dirty. Hate to say. I mean, you know, my dad's a dirty old man. I sometimes see him like talk, breaking out dirty jokes. Guys are always guys. And because, again, you are on stage with a beauty image, how do you educate the men to respect women? I know that sounds like one of those pageant questions. Cringy. But can you just, you know, what are your suggestions on how to remove that type of perspective? I was a minor being like publicly broadcast on state television in a swimsuit. And so that was... Like that photo, right? Exactly, exactly like that. I was 17 when I did that. And so it was really nerve-wracking for me because I knew that I was going to have a lot of people watching the pageant as there are every year. And I think that I just make it very public that my body is mine. And I know that people are going to be looking at it however way they want to. But that, like photo, that act of walking across the stage in a swimsuit is my personal act of empowerment and taking ownership of that kind of removes whatever negativity other people might give to me, whether that's scrutiny for being 17 years old and walking across the stage in a swimsuit, which I am still trying to get over. Or it be people who are looking at me for dirty reasons. Right. And you're going to get that throughout life, right? Being an attractive girl and confident, it just draws attention because the world is like that. Women are the spectacle and the men are the spectators. Now we have just a little bit of time left. If you can share anything you want to say to maybe men out there about the perception of beauty pageant or the concept of beauty, please, this is your moment. I mean, I think ultimately understand that we are people. We are still learning about ourselves and we are not just items for you to just look at and grab. We're human and we're here trying to learn, trying to help the community, do our community service, stand up for young children to advocate for respect and if we can't even get respect ourselves, how do you guys expect us to help the youth, you know? Right, right. Yeah, just going off of staff, I agree, you know? Yeah, you know, help us out. We're trying to make a difference in the world and in our community. So, yeah, you know, I think just helping us to empower ourselves as well as empower others around us as well. I know that not all of you are bad guys as much as we do. I know, I'm sorry. I know what peer pressure is such a big part of why men act the way that they do because there's an expectation for them just like there is for us to say the certain things and to act a certain way when they're with their friends and I think that if people felt comfortable standing up for themselves, whether it's a man or a woman in a setting with which they're not comfortable, then that would create a mutual sense of respect for all parties involved and whatever it be. So, I mean, if you hear a buddy talking about a woman who is wearing a short skirt, then you know what? That's her body. She can do what she wants. Exactly. Someone once told me that. You own it? Yeah, absolutely. Someone once told me that people can't be equal in the workplace until they can be equal in the home. So, I think that that's a really good first step as to how we can all work together to create that mutual sense of respect. You hear that? Guys, I mean, ladies and gentlemen, that is, I think you guys have the essence of what it is to be beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful. Inside and out. Nature for Hawaii, bringing the best of everyone out. So, thank you so much for your reflective and gorgeously confident conversations today. Remember to check us out if you missed this one. Go on to YouTube. This is Quok Talk on Think Tech. Thank you again, ladies. Thank you for having us. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for joining us.