Beauty queen defies typical image with hard work

By Meredith Chapin

Misty Giles is breaking through the pageant girl stereotype and proving that there is more to a queen than her beauty.

Her intelligence and self-sacrifice help her juggle school, pageant life, community service and three part-time jobs.

"I know what I want in life," Giles said, "and I am willing to work as hard as it takes to get it."

Giles has been a part of the pageant scene since she was 15, when her basketball team entered her in the Miss Central Texas Teen USA Pageant.

"My friends just put me in a dress and put some make-up on me," Giles said. "I had no idea what I was doing."

Despite her inexperience Giles won the pageant. She continued on the pageant circuit. In 1999, she was awarded the title of Miss Texas Teen USA.

Last year, she competed in the Miss Texas USA pageant as Miss Tarrant County. On Feb. 24, Giles won the title of Miss Ft. Worth USA.

This July she will compete in the Miss Texas USA Pageant, representing Ft. Worth. The pageant will be held in Lubbock, Texas and will air on CBS. The winner of the pageant will advance into the Miss USA Pageant.

"It is hard growing up as a woman," Giles said. "To go and compete in these pageants and see so many sophisticated and intelligent women is empowering."

The Crystal Group puts on the Texas Teen USA Pageant and the Miss Texas USA Pageant.

Denise Giles, Giles' mother, commends the agency on its professionalism and honesty.

"They are wonderful people," Denise Giles said. "I have never witnessed anything underhanded."

Linda Warriner, director of public relations for the Crystal Group admits that not all the women who come through the pageant circuit are nice people, but Giles is the exception.

"Misty is a joy to work with," Warriner said. "She is extremely intelligent, bright and articulate. On top of all of that, she is quite beautiful."

But it isn't Giles' beauty that's helping her complete a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and a master's degree in systems engineering simultaneously.

"It is hard to balance school and anything extracurricular when you are an engineering major," Lee Livingston, a junior mechanical engineering major said. "The study load can be quite overwhelming."

Giles agrees that it takes a lot of studying and late nights to keep up with the work, but it's all worth it.

Giles has found that she is not always taken seriously in the professional world, but she said it's no reason for her to give in.

"I often feel that people look at me as a pretty woman and not as intelligent. That is a common stereotype of beauty queens," Giles said. "We [women engineers] show the world we can be feminine and work in technical fields at the same time."

Giles is the first person in her family to go to college, and she pays all of her college tuition and pageant fees herself.

To cover these expenses she holds three jobs. She models for the Dallas Modeling Group, works at Larry North Fitness Club in Highland Park Village and is a modeling instructor at Barbizon Modeling School. She has appeared in print and television ads for Cover Girl, Venus Swimwear, Clairol hair color and many others.

Giles also volunteers with Girls Inc., a mentoring program for underprivileged girls.

Matt Kuberski, junior electrical engineering major and friend, said "she gives what little free time she has to show these girls that you can overcome anything in life."

Giles is not just a volunteer she is a role model.

"She shows those girls you can grow through adverse conditions and good things can happen," Kuberski said. "She's always willing to help people."