“I’m basically his employee now,” Reid, 18, said this week. “If I ever messed up, he’s the first to know.”
Reid recently beat out 44 other girls at the event in Portsmouth to win her first pageant title. She’ll represent Ohio next year at the national Miss Teen USA competition — part of the Trump-owned Miss Universe Organization that also includes the Miss Universe and Miss USA pageants.
Among the habits Trump finds unbecoming of a Miss Ohio Teen, according to the contract?
The chewing of gum and the use of foul language at public events are prohibited. Reid’s boyfriend also is not to be visible at public appearances.
“It’s kind of scary,” she said. “This is a job.”
The Miss Teen USA pageant will be held in July in a place that’s actually not even part of the USA — the Bahamas.
“I’m hoping to bring the crown home,” Reid said. “Getting the title and bringing the crown home to Springfield, Ohio? C’mon, it can’t get any better than that.”
A newcomer to the world of pageants, Reid admittedly entered her first one — last year’s Miss Ohio Teen USA competition — on a whim.
“I was watching Miss USA with my mom,” she explained, “and it was talking about the scholarship opportunities.
“It seemed like a fun way to go for it.”
Unsure how to prepare for her first pageant, she turned to the Internet.
“I watched YouTube videos,” Reid said. “I didn’t know what else to do. This was more of a scholarship thing than, ‘I’ve got to win the crown.’ “
But a funny thing happened — she did remarkably well her first time out.
“When she made the top 15, we were ecstatic,” said her mom, Rebecca Reid. “Then she made the top 5.”
In fact, she did so well last year — second runner-up — that it brought out the competitiveness in her.
“Walking away with second runner-up,” she said, “I had to do it again.”
Named Miss Central Ohio Teen earlier this year in Dayton, Reid returned to the Miss Ohio Teen USA pageant with her eyes set squarely on the crown.
The contestants are judged on a pre-show interview, in addition to swimwear and evening gown rounds.
Finalists then have to answer a question on stage, which is as nerve-wracking as you’d imagine.
“You can’t say ‘world peace’ every time,” Reid said.
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