Georgia's own Olivia McMillan is Miss America's Outstanding Teen 2015!!!
Olivia is a Senior at Northside High School in Warner Robins, GA. After winning the Miss Warner Robins' Outstanding Teen competition, she lost 50 pounds before her state contest and before being named Miss Georgia's Outstanding Teen. At 5'10, Olivia not only has a strong presence, she has a beautiful voice. She won the preliminary talent award at both GA OT and MAOT for her moving rendition of Nessun Dorma. Olivia, who describes herself as bi-racial, was adopted by her forever family and also has a brother with special needs.
And Junkies are super excited that she won!
In fact, we were so excited - we nearly burned our dinner! Here's a quick play by play of our evening shortly before Olivia was crowed...
- Pageant well underway... The Top 10 complete evening wear and OSQ. There seems to be some 'filler' at this point in the pageant, so I begin dinner...
- Hmmm... I haven't seen my son for 4 1/2 hours (silly kid forgot to 'check in').
- Update social media, text friends who aren't able to watch the stream... and try to remember all the ingredients for tonight's feast.
- Back to the webstream when they announce the Top 5 finalists... Originally, I wrote down 5 names and went 4 for 5, but switched one girl out at the last second. Bummer! Gotta stick with my gut.
- Back to dinner - time to brown the meat...
- Back to wondering where my son is and if he'll remember to come home on time...
- Back to my computer to see Leah Sykes' farewell... She's so lovely...
- Back to texting friends who aren't able to watch the show online and are looking for an update...
- Ok - live stream announcement time...
- Olivia McMillan is announced as the new MAOT!!!
- Took 17 photos - trying to get one worthy of posting before the stream goes out and Olivia is done with her "walk"...
- Junkies find 1 worthy photo and begin uploading to multiple social media outlets...
- Do I smell something burning...?
- Oh Crap!
- Good news! The meat's not "too bad"... it's just 'well done' and somewhat salvageable...
- My son's still not home... He'll never know the difference anyway :)
If you knew me, you'd realize that "cooking dinner" is a relatively new experience for me... However, "burning dinner" isn't a new experience at all... :) But enough about me - let's get back to MAOT!
Miss America's Outstanding Teen Top 5
WINNER - Olivia McMillan - Georgia (Top Vocalist Award)
1st Runner Up - Lexie Perry - Tennessee (Instrumentalist Award)
2nd Runner Up - Morgan Green - Alabama
3rd Runner Up - Casey Shepard - Virginia
4th Runner Up - Morgan Holen - Nebraska (Dancer Award)
Remaining Semi-Finalists
Florida (Dancer Award) - Michigan - Virgin Islands (People's Choice) - Pennsylvania - Texas
Top 12 Finishers
Colorado and North Dakota (People's Choice and Instrumental Award)
Teens in Action Award (aka - Quality of Life Award at Miss America for platform work)
Nevada and New Jersey
Non-Finalist Interview Award
Arkansas and New Jersey (tie)
Non-Finalist Gown Awards
Oklahoma and Washington (tie)
Non-Finalist Talent Awards
Utah and Wisconsin (tie)
Miss Congeniality
Nevada
CONGRATULATIONS LADIES!!!
1. Junkies only go 5 for 12 tonight---- but strangely enough, all 3 of our 'bubble states' also make the Top 12. THIS GOES TO PROVE SOMETHING IMPORTANT.... The last time we did really well when it came to semi-finalist predictions, it was because we saw 2 nights of preliminary competition at Miss America, back in Las Vegas. One night just doesn't seem to be enough for us - and obviously, not seeing ANY prelims for MAOT hurts us as well. There's only so much you can learn from online research instead of being there live.
2. While it's 'relatively easy' for Junkies to predict Prelim Winners - if you wanna become a semi-finalist, there's a lesson here to learn... You simply MUST be well-rounded in ALL categories! It's not enough to win a prelim - 2 prelim winners didn't even make the Semi-finals... and 2 girls made the Top 5 who didn't even win a prelim! Junkies may be able to predict your strength - but it's your ability to excel in ALL CATEGORIES that makes you a semi-finalist (which is certainly more important than our ability to pick you out of a crowd!).
3. On our original prediction list, Junkies picked 2 out of the Top 5 (GA and AL). We actually picked one additional girl who finished in the Top 5, but switched our choices right before posting the blog (Ugh! Must stop second guessing ourselves). We also posted a tweet sometime before the Top 5 announcement was made... In that tweet, we mentioned GA was our pick to win - she just had that 'something special' about her when she answered her question on stage.
4. Olivia is the first MAOT with a "strong story" in quite a while... And she certainly isn't the "typical pageant" type of winner! She still fits the mold of everything we listed in yesterday's post - Impressive Talent, Significant Beauty, Confident Communicator, Lots of Poise... But she also brings something else to the table... Call it, "The Mallory Factor". :) Junkies feel like Olivia is oh-so relateable - like Mallory Hagen, Miss America 2013! She's a "real teen" who has an awesome story to tell and as she said in her on-stage question, she can relate to nearly anyone because of the many facets of who she is (as we told you above). No doubt, Olivia will represent MAOT in a phenomenal way and we can't wait to see her year unfold!
AND THERE YOU HAVE IT!!! CONGRATS to all our contestants and their placements!!!
As always - BIG THANKS for playing along and for taking this inaugural journey with us... Predicting MAOT was a whole lot more fun than we originally thought - and a great way to "prime our pump" when it comes to Miss America! There's not much time between now and September 14th! Be sure to start your research now so you'll be ready when prelims begin in Atlantic City! Ready or Not... HERE IT COMES!!!
Congrats Again Teens - Junkies are super proud of each and every one of you!!!
'Til Next Time -
Founding Junkie
Actually, Olivia attends Northside High School in Warner Robins, Georgia. (There is also a Northside in Columbus.)
ReplyDeleteJust corrected! Google can really mess a girl up! Thanks for your help! :)
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