They did a makeover of hair and makeup - her new haircut was great, but Coach K is a little too in love with her hot rollers and when she tried to redo the style it came off looking like Donna Reed rather than the trendy, casual look the stylist managed to get. Poor Katie. But even that look was an improvement over the ponytail.

Next they took her shopping for more girly clothes. Now this was interesting, because Katie had a great figure hiding under her slouchy clothes, and this was the best thing that Coach K did for Katie. She showed Katie that she could still be comfortable and casual and look great. It was fun to see the reaction of her schoolmates when she came in wearing the new outfits.

Then began the task of teaching Katie how to be graceful. Now, she’s athletic, she’s not dainty.  They had her taking ballet and I was cracking up to watch her try to glide across the floor on her toes, she doesn’t glide. But her Coach and the ballet teacher were great to always encourage her.

They got a model/pageant coach - a former Miss Vermont - and this lady was INTENSE. Katie called her a “broad” and I have to agree. She takes this pageant stuff really seriously. Wow. But she had Katie looking good, I must admit.

I won’t talk about the workouts much. I don’t understand why they made her do that. In a month there wasn’t going to be much change, she was already athletic, she was in good shape. That whole thing seemed pointless, although Katie may be in trouble later in life if she continues to eat the quantity of food she does now. At one point she was ordering fast food and if I recall correctly she ordered 2 chicken nuggets, 1 quarter pounder, large fries, large drink. There was something else too, but I can’t remember it. And it was all for her. Wow.

All of this was going on as Katie’s junior prom was approaching. She really wanted to go with one particular boy, but he was going with someone else, so Katie asked an ex to go with her. I think it was about a week before her pageant that she had her prom. She looked fantastic - she wore a bright red dress but her one Katie thing was the red Addidas tennis shoes she wore. She had a great time at her prom and the surprise of the night was that she was crowned prom queen! Very cool.

And now we get to the moment at hand - the pageant. At one point in her training, she was fed up and in an argument with Coach K she said pageants were fake. This caused Coach K to tear up and walk away - later Katie sort of apologized by explaining that she does feel that pageants are fake but that she didn’t mean that Coach K was fake (or something like that).

But you know, Katie is right. They are fake and a lot of those girls are fake. In college I had two friends who would do pageants (for the scholarship money) and it was ridiculous what they would do to themselves, the money they spent, the people they had to deal with. But I digress...

Katie did well at the pageant. She looked great, she was more poised than I had ever seen her. She glided across the stage, but still with a little Katie hop to it. Coach K was beaming with pride. And she lost, but as Coach K said to her, “You did well to get this far and when you get home, you’ll still be prom queen.” And when Katie got home, her life went back to normal but with some changes. She’s more confident, she’s a little more girly, she’s friends with the Teen Miss Vermont that she used to ridicule, and she admitted to missing hanging out with Coach K. I think the makeover was a success.