{"id":231364,"date":"2016-07-04T06:00:52","date_gmt":"2016-07-03T20:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=231364"},"modified":"2016-07-04T06:00:52","modified_gmt":"2016-07-03T20:00:52","slug":"pageant-candidates-enjoy-journey-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/pageant-candidates-enjoy-journey-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Pageant candidates enjoy journey, experience"},"content":{"rendered":"
Reigning Miss Marianas Jian Joyner, right, poses with the candidates of the Miss Marianas and Miss Teen Marianas in front of the pageant\u2019s official car from Triple J Motors. The new queen will be using the car for one year. (Jon Perez)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Three of the four Miss Teen Marianas candidates and six of their counterparts in the Miss Marianas competition said they all enjoyed the journey and experience they had by just being part of the annual beauty pageant organized by Stellar Marianas.<\/p>\n

Jyawnna Joyner, Nicole Myers, Palanga Taimanao, and Lexee Leesang will be vying for the Miss Teen Marianas crown, while Marie Aldan, Angelyn Labadan, Joanna Navarro, Peachy Quitugua, Francine Sablan, and Maricris Zapanta are the six Miss Marianas candidates.<\/p>\n

Nine candidates were present in Thursday\u2019s press conference held at the Marianas Visitors Authority office as Leesang was off-island. Stellar Marianas president Laila Y. Boyer and some of the sponsors were also present.<\/p>\n

Joyner said although she was a shy girl joining the Miss Teen Marianas was her dream. \u201cI\u2019m normally a shy girl but I just want to give it a try. Joining was a fun experience. It helped me come out of my shell and become more confident.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said that, if ever she\u2019s crowned Miss Teen Marianas, she wants to focus helping kids who come from broken families and victims of abuse. \u201cI want to say to them that they are not alone and I\u2019m one of the persons they can talk to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Myers said that she was glad to be part of an excellent group of lovely ladies who are passionate in helping the community in every way they can. \u201cWe all want to help the community in anyway that we can. We put out ourselves so we could reach our full potential.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI would love to show to the rest of the world that Saipan is more than just a tiny island and the entire CNMI has a lot more things to offer,\u201d added Myers if ever she wins the crown.<\/p>\n

Taimanao, who comes from Rota, said that there were not really a lot of opportunities in the CNMI\u2019s southernmost island. \u201cI don\u2019t usually do pageants and I\u2019m not into make up but this is something new so why not try it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said that at first she thought that you need to tryout and undergo a rigid screening process. \u201cI was surprised when they told me that I\u2019m in. So, I grabbed the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

She wants to campaign in breaking down divisions in school. \u201cTeenagers at my age, we have our own group of friends at school, our own cliques, while some are left alone. I want to end that since we\u2019re in one school and it\u2019s better to have lots of friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Navarro, a repeat candidate in the Miss Marianas, said she loves joining events like this and that\u2019s what she does when she\u2019s in the Philippines. \u201cI\u2019m happy joining pageants. It has been my passion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThough, I have joined pageants before, I still have nervous feelings but it\u2019s less than the first time I competed,\u201d added Navarro, who graduated magna cum laude with a degree in hospitality management at the Northern Marianas College.<\/p>\n

Boyer said this year\u2019s pageant theme is \u201cNautical Chic\u201d as the candidates promote protecting natural resources and taking care of the environment.<\/p>\n

The winning candidate, both in the Miss Teen Marianas and Miss Marianas, will be using a brand new car from Triple J Motors for the whole year of their respective reigns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three of the four Miss Teen Marianas candidates and six of their counterparts in the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":231368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[162,26,4679,2246],"class_list":["post-231364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-car","tag-cnmi","tag-miss-marianas","tag-miss-teen-marianas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}