Alison Cronin, our
reigning Miss Massachusetts USA, may have the whole beauty-queen thing down
now, but there was a time when the Weymouth native was more comfortable playing
sports and wearing sneakers than sporting a tiara and five-inch heels. The
22-year-old pageant veteran - she's a former Miss Teen Massachusetts - was a
self-described tomboy growing up, one who "no one would have guessed would be
making her way wearing gowns." An alum of Weymouth High, where she captained
the gymnastics team, Cronin got into competing as a way "to meet people, make
contacts, and expand my world." And indeed it has. Since graduating from New
York University, Cronin has had her photograph featured as part of a Time
magazine cover in August and scored a few small roles in films made in New York
over the summer, she told us while waiting in line at a recent casting call for
a major movie being filmed in the area. Cronin realizes that not everyone can
walk a runway in a bathing suit, and she credits her confidence to her
father - who died when she was 13
- and mother. Her parents are also the source of one of her prized possessions:
a sweatshirt her father gave her mother on their first date.
A sweatshirt seems like an odd thing
for a beauty pageant contestant to wear - after all, the one thing Miss USA
contestants should never do is sweat, right? That's true, but you do get cold. Very cold sometimes. When you are waiting on
stage or backstage during rehearsals, there's a lot of standing
around, and you get cold. Even when you are in a gown or a suit,
which is funny because I'd be in a gown with my gray, discolored sweatshirt
on top.
It obvious that the sweatshirt means
something more to you than just a security object. What is it about a ratty old
shirt? I found it not long after
my father died. He had given to my mom when they started dating, and it's just been
something that I wear when there are those big moments. I wore it when I took
my SATs. Some people look at me funny, but I don't care. It's from a Massachusetts bar where
my dad worked, so I fell like I'm more connected to the state.
So it's your secret weapon? Yes, and every woman needs one. You're out on a
stage and runway walking under lights in front a huge crowd, you
can't see, and you're in five-inch heels. It's a game of confidence....
That's something that directly translates
to the rest of your life, even if
the five-inch heels and the bathing suit don't.
So do you have any beauty secrets to
share? I've had to learn
everything along the way. Until I started in
pageants, we didn't even have a
blow dryer in the house. I think you have to learn what works best for you. For me
that's the key. Seek out those who know and work with them to make your own
beauty plan.
Massachusetts isn't known for being a
pageant powerhouse. How did you compete against those other states that seem to
just churn out beauty queens who win titles? On a personal level, I just approached it as an assignment. I studied
the winners. We have had some success on the national level - Susie
Castillo won the Miss USA title in 2003 and Shawnae Jebbia won [in 1998]
- but it is tough.
You went on to the Miss USA
competition, and had you won that, you could have been Miss Universe. That
seems pretty big, reigning over the whole universe. Yes, that's the ultimate goal: to take over the
universe. Ha! It's so much more about presenting yourself - and not falling when you are
walking.
