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| Upton |
by JACQUELINE SCOTT
Intern Lifestyles Reporter
She goes almost unnoticed as a typical student, in jeans and a blouse –a far cry from any pageant’s diamond studded tiara and sash.
Long blonde hair, 5 feet 10 inches tall, 19-years-old: it is former Miss South Carolina Teen USA, freshman graphic design major L. Caitlin Upton.
Upton is infamous for her on-stage goof concerning maps.
Although a year has
passed since the memorable ‘such as’ blunder, prank phone calls from
‘Donald Trump’ still swarm her voicemail box.
Days
following the pageant, her Facebook.com account was slammed with
hundreds of friend requests and messages, leading her to temporarily
change her Facebook alias to Armani Exchange.
“I was
supposed to come last year to Appalachian State University, but I
delayed my acceptance because of modeling and traveling that was
involved after the pageant,” Upton said. “I didn’t have the time to
devote to school. I would have been distracted and it wouldn’t have
been good on my grades.”
Despite
the ditzy persona media made her out to be after the mishap, she said
she hopes to maintain a 4.0 GPA during her first semester at
Appalachian.
Upton
first began modeling at age 12 and has since worked with Locke Model
Management, Talent Connections, TRUMP Model management, Montel Williams
Agency, NEXT models and Los Angeles models.
“I’ve always been passionate about modeling, because I’m an artist and it’s an art to me,” she said.
Not
blinded by the allure of the tiara’s diamonds, Upton started competing
in pageants during her junior year of high school in attempts to foster
and build personal communication skills.
However, there was no denying the fun in playing dress up once again as an adult, she said.
Growing up as a tomboy, Upton competed in almost every sport, most
notably soccer since five years old, and was a self-proclaimed “Daddy’s
girl.”
“I
played varsity soccer all four years in high school,” she said. “When I
was 16, I was one of the 18 girls chosen to go abroad to Europe to
represent the U.S. and play soccer internationally for two months
during the summer.”
“Being a
tomboy got me through all of the hard times,” she said. “When I compete
for my name and my title in sports or pageants, I compete to win. You
have to be proud of yourself, you have to focus on yourself, in a
non-conceited way before you can focus on anything else.”
Upton
and her roommate, freshman graphic arts and imaging technology major
Megan M. Wrinn, met through random potluck roommate pairings.
The two will play soccer intramurals together this year.
Wrinn
said she tries not to bring attention to her roommate’s identity,
although when friends ask what Upton is like, Wrinn is unphased by
living with a “celebrity.”
“[The
blunder] was meant to happen to me and I’m glad that it did because I
feel like I’ve been able to help people,” Upton said. “There are a lot
of people out there who aren’t confident with themselves, and I would
love to just be able to help them gain their confidence, and to make
them realize that no matter what people say to you or say about you,
you’re who you are and the friends are the ones who love you.”
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