It is 1983 and Vanessa Martin, a thirteen-year-old African American girl in Newark's public housing, dreams of following in the footsteps of the first African American Miss America, Vanessa Williams; but the odds are against her until a new teacher at school organizes a beauty pageant and encourages Vanessa to enter.
It is 1983 and Vanessa Martin, a thirteen-year-old African American girl in Newark's public housing, dreams of following in the footsteps of the first black Miss America, Vanessa Williams; but the odds are against her until a new teacher at school organizes a beauty pageant and encourages Vanessa to enter.
Pageant contestants Presley, who needs to win to afford college, and Megan, the girl with all of the connections, pull out all the stops, including vicious rumors and scandalous pictures on the Internet, when they face each other in a contest.
Hoping that if she wins a local beauty pageant her father will come home, Raymie practices twirling a baton and performing good deeds as she is drawn into an unlikely friendship with a drama queen and a saboteur.
Each member of the Baby-sitters Club sponsors a different girl in the Little Miss Stoneybrook competition, as Dawn also tries to cope with the break-up of her family after her parents are divorced.
Bess and George come to Nancy's rescue after she encounters some thugs from Pretty Face Cosmetics, the corporation that is sponsoring the beauty pageant in which Nancy has agreed to compete.
Nancy goes undercover as a contestant in the Miss Pretty Face River Heights Beauty Pageant in order to find out who framed Portia Leoni, last year's winner.
Bess really wants to be the Pumpkin Princess so she can wear the crown and special dress in the fall parade, but snobby Brenda Carlton wins the princess contest. When the gown disappears and Nancy agrees to help Brenda find it, Bess feels betrayed and Nancy worries that being a detective means she will lose her best friend.
