archived

SPONSORSHIPS

if you ask jordan about it, she’ll joke that her hand still hurts from all the letters she wrote asking community business owners and organizations to sponsor her for the miss teen ohio pageant so she could afford materials for a gown, as well as the steep application and pageant fees. she’ll throw in that she considered becoming ambidextrous so she could write out all the thank-you notes she needed to, as well. a huge thank-you goes out to george and martha’s, jim’s body shop, wilmington tire & lube, the community foundation of franklin county, and the historic columbus theatre for making it possible for jordan to compete.

PAGEANT PLATFORM

when jordan initially started prepping for the pageant circuit, her platform was advocating for affordable and accessible food banks to under-funded communities in order to battle hunger and food deserts in the state of ohio. while it’s a good platform to have, it became apparent early on that it was something of a standard among pageant contestants; if it’s not food shortage and malnutrition, it’s clean energy, reducing your carbon footprint, saving trees, adopt don’t shop  —  a lot of things that blend together in the same avenue of nice, but forgettable.

six months into competing, jordan changes her platform to advocating for victims of sexual violence. she partners with a local organization to raise awareness to the growing problem with sexual violence in the state and the nation, how victims are affected short and long-term, and what resources are needed to help victims heal and move forward. her goal, with her platform, is to help victims get away from their abusers and find the strength to stand on their own through a program that helps set them up with housing and furniture. she does not speak on her own personal journey as a rape victim.

TALENT

while coming up with a platform and speaking on it was bumpy initially, prepping a talent was as easy and natural as breathing for jordan. she always sings; it’s the easiest talent for people to connect to, it’s something everyone understands, and her repertoire is long enough and diverse enough to carry her to top scores within the talent portion. selections she’s done range from celine dion, to adele, to alicia keys; while vocal performance is a key strength of hers, she doesn’t rest on that and still prepares, just as she would for any performance or audition.

QUESTION AND ANSWER

taken from the miss teen columbus pageant

Q:     if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be and why?

the one piece of advice I would give myself is, don’t worry about doing everything right. it’s easy to tell yourself that you always have to be the best at everything and you always need to strive for perfection, but it’s okay to slip up and make mistakes. it’s a huge part of growing up, and it’s the only way to learn and grow as a person. just because you’ve messed up doesn’t mean you’re a bad person  —  that’s what makes you human.

Q:     who is your biggest inspiration, and why?