BuddyTV - Exclusive Interview: April Crockett, Tiara Girls Contestant

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January 19, 2007
The cult MTV hit spurned a loyal following and inspired debate about the expansive beauty pageant industry.

Showing a number of points of view on pageants and a variety of the girls involved, Tiara Girls was and is dynamic, engrossing television.
One of the ladies featured on Tiara Girls was April Crockett and she took the time to stop by and talk to us here at BuddyTV about the show. We discussed how she got involved in Tiara Girls, the misleading editing employed by the show's producers, and what April's advice would be to girls who want to compete in pageants.

How did you initially get involved with Tiara Girls and what made you want to do it in the first place?
Initially, I was a college student at Lindenwood University and I had actually got that scholarship by doing the Miss USA Teen Missouri Pageant the previous year and I got top 15 so I won a $48,000 scholarship with that. And I really wasn't happy with the school so I spent a lot of time in my room and I happened to come across the casting call on MTV.

com's website and I applied and I got it. Well actually I didn't just get it, I had several interviews and I was chosen out of thousands of girls.
Did you do a lot of pageants before then, besides Miss USA Teen?

Actually, Miss USA Teen was my first pageant and I was a junior or senior in high school and I just did it because I didn't have...

I did pageants to earn scholarship money for college because my parents aren't as fortunate as the other girls you may see on MTV or the Tiara Girls, but I did the pageants to earn scholarship money and I actually did end up winning scholarship money in that one. But, when I left the school I lost that money so I had to get into another pageant and that was Miss American Teen pageant. That was the system, actually I did the Missouri pageant for Miss American Teens and I actually won its independence in the preliminary and I placed one of the runners-up in the state competition and I was supposed to go on to nationals but I didn't.

And, prior to doing Tiara Girls I had done two pageants and I placed in both of them. I also did the Miss NAACP and I was a regional pageant and got fourth runner up in that one also.
So what was it like being on Tiara Girls?

Was it hard having cameras following you around everywhere and did you feel like you could be yourself?
Actually, I was so nervous. The first day they came it was really awkward because I didn't know what to do and I'm like, "Well I don't think I'm as exciting as a lot of the people that I've seen on TV.

" But, you know, it was actually pretty fun. Like the first time they came down, it was funny because a lot of them had never been to Kansas City, it was such a small city compared to the other cities they've been to. They kind of grew on me; it kind of was weird just having someone sitting there watching you all the time.

I had to be aware of myself a lot, but I wanted to be me always. I want to be someone that the girls can relate to on TV because I'm just me. I definitely remained in myself the whole time but it was a little.

..you notice every little embarrassing thing you do (laughs) when you're on TV and a lot of people will pin point the things that I did on TV and that was the worst part, having people criticize you while you're on TV because you know that everybody else is going to see that.

Is the criticism something you've gotten used to? How do you deal with it?
I think the show has definitely been a good thing for me.

It's helped me deal with positive criticism very well because I had to deal with it a lot during the show. A lot of stuff you didn't see is that I had a personal trainer, I was going to college full-time, I worked full-time because my mom's disabled and I was one of the only sources of income in the house. Not only did I have a personal trainer, I had a pageant coach.

So I had to do all of this stuff in such a small amount of time, including the camera crew following me. So, it was a lot of pressure.
It seemed like you had some issues with your personal trainer and training coach.

Was that drama something the show was responsible for creating, or was it real?
Actually, my personal trainer, he was wonderful. They didn't show him on there, I think they excluded a lot of personal things about my personality and a lot of positive things about the whole process.

My personal trainer was wonderful, but my pageant coach, me and him did have some issues. I didn't realize we did at the time, but after seeing the show, I saw how bad he talked about me and I feel like I didn't do anything to him, and as a person who's on my team, he should be motivating me and encouraging me and giving me positive construction instead of bringing me down. And, basically all I saw was him doubting me the whole time and I felt like sometimes when you have somebody behind your back, it pushes you to go forward, but when you have somebody doubting you, sometimes it calls you to get a little bit nervous and actually do worse.

That was my worst pageant by far. And every pageant I've done, I've placed in and I feel confident and wonderful, but that pageant happened to be my worst pageant experience ever.
From your experience being on the show, what's one of the biggest lessons you took away it?

One of the biggest lessons I would say is always keep positive people around you and keep the negative people out. Throughout this experience, I noticed that everybody uses people to an extent, and I felt like a lot of people worked in my life at the time to use me to their advantage. If you have a negative person in there.

..it's okay, I'll help you if you help me, it's good to help someone else, I feel like if you have a blessing you should share that blessing.

But as long as you keep positive people in your life you'll feel good about helping somebody as opposed to having a negative person that you're helping, and they're actually just using you and then leaving you. I've definitely learned to surround myself with positive people and also myself, to be a little bit more positive and less pessimistic about certain situations.
After watching your episode for the first time, did you feel that the show portrayed you in a positive and realistic light?

Or do you feel that the producers skewed what really went on with your pageant?
It was a lot of editing. People that knew me and saw the episode.

..especially the people that were around during the filming, were totally disappointed.

Especially my personal trainer who they didn't show and my hairdresser that they barely showed, when they saw the episode they called me and were like, "this is not you at all", and some of my family members too. They knew prior to the episode when I first took up the position, what my goal was. And that was to show females of all body types and of all diversity, that we have the ability to do anything through faith and confidence within ourselves.

But, actually, they showed me as a very cocky type of individual who had a chip on my shoulder, which meaning...

they portrayed me as a person that believes as an African American female doing pageants, I'll never achieve the goals that the typical girl may achieve. And that's totally not how I am. I have confidence in myself and that's through faith in God that I can achieve anything that anybody can achieve as long as I work hard to get what I got.

So they totally made me seem different. And the results were kind of tainted too because there were some things that went on behind the scenes of the show they didn't even reveal, that kind of tainted the way the judging process occurred in the show.
Would you do it again?

And, if so, would there be things that you'd do differently next time?
If I did it again, I probably wouldn't do the pageant that I did because the pageant that I did, what made it so hard, is at the pageant a lot of the girls did not want me there because, I guess it was a little envy, or they expected that I was going to win because the cameras were following me. So, it made me kind of feel isolated.

When you don't have fun when you're doing something, you're not going to do as good, and then you feel isolated. I just didn't have a happy atmosphere around me. And also, I probably would have done it without a pageant coach because I actually used two different pageant coaches during the show and neither one of the pageant coaches I think offered a lot to me that I couldn't do myself.

Do you have any advice for young girls out there that are considering doing pageants or who want to be on reality television?
My advice for females who are considering pageants would be to know what you are getting into. Each pageant system is different; they all are looking for a different look in a female, some are scams, some are legitimate and if you play your cards right it can produce a great platform for your future.

But one thing all the pageants have in common is that they all are time consuming and costly therefore each contestant better be in it to win it.
Depending upon your personality, morals and the show you are applying for, reality television may or may not be the best route to go if you are looking to get your foot in the door of the entertainment industry. Some shows do not provide the same amount of exposure or the same type of exposure.

In addition, you never know how the directors are going to create your character. When you are doing reality TV it sometimes seems as if you are a character in a sit-com or movie that is playing another character but that character is supposed to be you in real life..

.kind of crazy, but it's true! Sometimes reality TV does not show the whole story too because they have filmed so much and tried to condense it to a entertaining story.

Meaning, that the editors make you into the character they want you to be. Depending on your goals, reality TV can be damaging to your reputation if the show is not positive. For me, I think it has been a good thing and a bad thing I've learned a lot and I thank God for this blessing.

What are your future plans?
My plans now are to live life day by day and keep God in all my ways. It's easy to forget who we are in this industry (pageants, etc.

), but I plan to stay focused on my goals. I'm still interested in completing school, film, music, and modeling. With all of the offers I have been getting I'm not sure which avenue I am going to take but I hope the Lord continues to bless me.

..just stay tuned.