North Spirit Lake’s Henderson learns from beauty pageant experience

Melinda Henderson of North Spirit Lake First Nation sat in the front passenger seat of the vehicle I was driving on a Sunday evening. I had just picked her up at Thunder Bay airport and she seemed to be finally taking a breather.
Henderson was fresh from Sudbury, Ont., where she had completed her first try at winning a crown fit for a beauty queen.
The Miss North Ontario Regional Canada Pageant is a beauty pageant held in Sudbury at Laurentian University. While Henderson did not win - a girl who could “walk on her hands down stairs,” as Henderson described it, ended up taking the title - the 19-year-old soon-to-be high school graduate did put in quite the performance.
“That was a crazy week” Henderson said of the pageant as she sat in the passenger’s seat. She spoke about how she couldn’t believe the week was over already. She described her experience that had me thinking of chaos in heels: travel, interviews, cranky beauty queens, hair and make-up sessions, photoshoots, waking up early after going to bed late, and a fellow-contestant teasing her for eating pizza – an act which was probably fuelled a little by jealousy since Henderson can pretty much eat whatever she wants and still be “pretty lanky.”
The truth is, her lankiness takes some work. She has rekindled her love for sports. She is on her high school’s soccer team and tries to maintain a healthy diet. Henderson believes that keeping herself physically healthy will keep her alive longer. She also feels that keeping physically active by playing sports and eating right gives her better self-esteem and helps her avoid trouble.
Henderson also maintains her high self-esteem by continuing with her true passion: singing. She is a natural-born singer but admits that she could use some formal vocal-training. For the talent part of the Miss North competition, Henderson sang the Dixie Chick’s version of the Stevie Nicks song “Landslide.”
Henderson sings country songs very well. She thinks it’s funny that her vocals are so at home with country music because she used to dislike the genre. Perhaps country music is simply in her roots – as a very young girl Henderson used to sing along with her mother’s Shania Twain cassette tapes.
“I used to think Shania Twain was in the tape player” Henderson confessed.
Although she is just about to enter her 20s, Henderson possesses a maturity that most people her age do not. This maturity comes from life experience: Henderson is proud to say that she has seen and lived through things most of her peers have not by the age of 19.
She once told me that she “never had anything handed to her.” She worked hard for what she did have. She went through an unstable period during her teen years in Alberta and it took a lot of determination to get back on track education-wise. Henderson is now about to graduate from Queen Elizabeth District High School in Sioux Lookout and plans on attending university in either Winnipeg or Thunder Bay in the fall.
Even though she competed at her first beauty pageant, she does not want to be just a pretty face.
Henderson said that “looks don’t last but wisdom does.”
When she speaks on issues like racism, music, goals and ambitions, physical health, and even bullying you can tell that she really is not just a pretty face.
Her struggles with bullying caused her to relocate and even to stop wearing make-up. Although she doesn’t disclose just what her bullies did to her, she feels that they went too far, that they crossed the line. All she really hopes for in the end regarding her bullying-issue is that her bullies don’t treat anyone else the way they treated her.
The first song Henderson wrote is entitled “Still Not Sorry.” It is long and sad and makes you think of the times that you were wronged in your life.
After her time spent at the pageant in Sudbury, Henderson realized that a lot of the pretty, smart and ambitious contestants also encountered a bully or two in their lives. She admires the people she met for not giving up when they felt beaten and for staying strong and beautiful inside and out.
Even though she didn’t bring home the crown at this year’s Miss North Ontario, she still returned with experience, heightened self-esteem, and the knowledge of how to do it better next year.
“Failing isn’t the end of the world,” Henderson said of the pageant. “It is the beginning of a better, more successful one.”
Henderson also plans on entering the Miss Thunder Bay pageant that will be taking place at the Slovak Legion in Thunder Bay on November 2 and 3. Now that she knows what is expected at beauty pageants, she says that she is going to “go all out” this time.