{"id":384688,"date":"2023-02-03T06:06:11","date_gmt":"2023-02-02T20:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=384688"},"modified":"2023-02-03T06:06:11","modified_gmt":"2023-02-02T20:06:11","slug":"tinian-lass-is-peoples-choice-winner-in-pageant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/tinian-lass-is-peoples-choice-winner-in-pageant\/","title":{"rendered":"Tinian lass is People\u2019s Choice winner in pageant"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Tinian daughter Isa Ha\u2019ani Long poses with the People\u2019s Choice award that she won at the 2023 Miss Massachusetts Teen USA last weekend in Burlington Massachusetts. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tinian lass Isa Ha\u2019ani Long continues to represent the Marianas well, placing in the Top 16 as one of the semifinalists in the 2023 Miss Massachusetts Teen USA competition and winning the People\u2019s Choice Award last weekend, in Burlington Massachusetts.<\/p>\n

Long, who is a pre-medical student at Harvard University, later told Saipan Tribune, soon after receiving the award, that she was proud to have put Tinian and the Northern Marianas on the map.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel very honored and grateful, especially for having a support system from back home. It was a great experience and I was very privileged to be able to represent my roots and my island,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Among the many people she had met through the pageant, Long said that not many people knew of Tinian or the Marianas, so she enjoyed sharing her culture and shedding more light on her heritage. \u201cIt was nice to be able to explain my culture, traditions from back home, and just let more people know about the islands.\u201d<\/p>\n

This wasn\u2019t the first competition Long was involved in. She also bagged several trophies during her previous participation in the 2022 California OCB Bay Area Amateur Bikini Bodybuilding Championships.<\/p>\n

When asked how different the process was when competing in a bodybuilding competition versus a pageant, Long said, \u201cThis was my first pageant ever, which I didn\u2019t expect it to be as intense as it was. But I have competed in body building before. My first competition was prior to college. \u2026They\u2019re two completely different ways of preparation, but I guess I had a feel of what it was like to be on a stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cBody building is definitely a lot more rigorous on the body\u2026in terms of exercises and discipline and holding yourself accountable and it\u2019s a lot of work. And pageants are a lot of work too, but I feel like they\u2019re just completely different things. Body building [is] like building your muscles and growth in that sense; in pageants, it\u2019s more of like who you are as a person, what you advocate for\u2014so it\u2019s just different ways of what they highlight in an individual.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the whole process \u201cwas a genuinely good experience\u2026Initially, we\u2019d meet on Friday, and then Saturday was prelims and then from there, the Top 15 would advance and I was grateful enough to have received a spot the Top 15 as well as the People\u2019s Choice. So that was amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Long thanks all those who supported her throughout her journey. \u201cSi yu\u2019us ma\u2019ase Marianas and all my friends and family who voted! …None of this would\u2019ve been close to possible without my amazing community. It\u2019s because of you that I was able to confidently represent my roots and everything I stand for. So incredibly honored to have had this opportunity to compete,\u201d she posted on her Facebook page.<\/p>\n

Long\u2019s father also posted, \u201cWe wanted to thank everyone who supported Isa and her drive to become the Miss Teen Massachusetts People\u2019s Choice winner. Without the support of family, friends and islanders worldwide, we couldn\u2019t have done this.\u201d<\/p>\n

A co-valedictorian alumni of Tinian High School, Long is currently a pre-med student at Harvard, and a certified personal trainer. She has a twin sister, Cielo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tinian lass Isa Ha\u2019ani Long continues to represent the Marianas well, placing in the Top…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":384690,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-384688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384688","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\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}