October 10th- Melanie has been featured in September's edition of "Pageant Magazine" in the Spotlight on Miss Universe section.

 

 

Spotlight on...Miss SWO, Melanie Moretto

 

-How did your upbringing influence you to participate in pageants?

I wasn’t influenced to go into pageants growing up. I was a tomboy, and I was actually the only girl on a boys’ baseball team for three years, and I also played hockey and volleyball, so I was a pure athlete. My mom was a fan of Miss Canada, so she suggested I do preliminaries for the Miss Southwestern Ontario Pageant. I had participated in regional pageants, and I had won in my senior year, but I had never anticipated going into the Miss Universe system.

-How do you compare the competition of sports and that of pageants?

I’ve always liked team sports, so for me it was like switching from a team sport to an individual sport. In pageant competition, you didn’t have anybody else to rely on — it's just you out there.

-Do you consider yourself to be very competitive?

I don’t think I’m competitive with other people; I think I am competitive with myself just in terms of... I’m a perfectionist. If I make a mistake, I’m much more determined to go out there next time and not make that mistake. Overcoming challenges in pageants really parallels the challenges of sports.

-In what way does going through the local, provincial, and national Miss Universe Canada competitions mimic job interview situations in other industries?

I’ve found that most of my medical school interviews were actually easier than most of the pageant interviews I had ever done, simply because the pageant interviews really challenge you in many different ways other than asking you to simply justify your career aspirations or explain why you are the right fit for this job. In my medical school interviews, I wasn’t asked about Canadian/ US foreign policy or the war in Iraq, whereas in pageant interviews that is certainly fair game. The Miss Canada Organization prepares you for public speaking, as well as helping you build the confidence and interviewing skills that contestants carry over to whatever field they go into.