Trinity-Byrnes cheerleader takes message of self-care to national stage
By Melissa Rollins, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net
The Trinity-Byrnes Collegiate School football team is hoping to bring home the title this season after chasing its first state championship title last year. One of their cheerleaders is also hoping for a win, this time on a national level as she competes in the Miss Teen Global United States Pageant.
For Chandler Jordan, though, beauty pageants are less about winning a crown or title and more about making a difference. When she competes in Orlando, Florida this November she will be sharing her Perfectly Imperfect platform, letting others know that they are perfect just the way that they are.
“I did my first pageant when I was seven-years-old,” Jordan said. “That sparked my interest in community service. I did it in honor of my aunt who was actually dying from breast cancer at the time.”
Jordan said that people often have a misperception of pageants and the people who participate in them.
“There are stereotypes of pageants but I have done so many pageants and the number one thing for me was all of the people that I met,” Jordan said. “Those people are people that I still talk to everyday. Every single day I am still talking to some of the people that I met during my very first pageant. We have all done community service project together since then and that is something that we all got motivated to do through pageants.”
Her foray into the pageant world was unplanned but the platform she will be running on in November is not, having been carefully crafted over several years.
“My platform is called Imperfectly Perfect and I have been developing it over the last two years,” Jordan said. “It focuses on self-confidence and body positivity while spreading education and awareness of mental health, specifically eating disorders while promoting healthy eating, healthy minds and healthy lifestyles.”
The platform is personal for her after developing an eating disorder herself.
“When I was overcoming that, throughout that process which has been going on over the last two years, I realized that there are so many other people going through this,” Jordan said. “Like me, they felt ashamed and embarrassed about it. My ultimate goal is to be the voice for people who feel like they can’t find their own and to be the light for people who feel like they are in the dark. Being involved in both the beauty pageant industry and in modeling I have seen so much, not just eating disorders but with mental health in general. I have seen so many overcome it, including myself, and I think that makes us even stronger.”
Jordan said that she was unsure about telling her story but quickly realized that other people could relate.
“The first time I talked about (my story) it was awful,” she said. “I said that I was done and I was not doing that platform. Then someone called me…and told me on the phone that I had to keep doing that platform. I have been around three other girls in the last few months that have gone through the same thing as me and I have been able to talk them through it. This was definitely meant to be.”
Jordan is a sophomore at Trinity-Byrnes. She is a varsity cheerleader, a member of the school dance team, is an honors student and is a member of the National Junior Honor Society.