Story By: Jake Stoup 

MONTEVALLO, Ala

Madeleine Matherne is a student here at the University of Montevallo who loves pageants and beauty shows. Madeleine competes in the Miss Alabama organization outside of school and uses it as a way to boost her confidence. 

She found her love of pageantry through her grandmother who was close friends with the owner of the Clothes Tree in Birmingham. The Clothes Tree is a sponsor for Miss Alabama so Madeleine grew up around the pageant world and heard all about Miss Alabama as a child. 

She started entering and competing in pageants at the age of 13. Her love for it grew as she got older and continued to compete.

When Madeleine was a senior in high school she entered in a pageant for her hometowns high school, which she did not attend. She ended up winning the pageant and even made it into the high school’s yearbook.

“I won and I didn’t even go to school there” Through pageants she learned that checking in on yourself and making sure your mental health was good is an integral aspect of life. Mental health is one of the most important parts of pageantry, she says.

 “You have to really be checking in with yourself a lot and making sure you are reevaluating your goals thinking is this aligned with what I want for my life”

Madeleine Matherne

Madeleine emphasized it’s important to enter every competition with confidence that you are going to be the title holder and also to ignore the other people in the show and just focus on what you can do better.


A skill she learned from her time doing pageants was her ability to think on her feet. She got this from all the interview questions the pageant hosts ask contestants in the Miss Alabama pageant.

With how the pageants are run she has gained skill in interviewing. One of the major parts of pageants is the interview about your skills and hobbies

Madeleine says that the interviewees can ask her a wide range of questions, ranging from what her favorite color is to what person she is going to vote for. “You have to think on your feet but also not sound like a crazy person when answering.”

Campus life

Something that she is a part of on campus is the Greek life here. She is a member of Chi Omega, which she joined to help try and make friends while at campus.

She also says that the sorority is another great way of helping boost someone’s confidence and making friends who will be with you past college. It also helped her meet more people.

When going through recruitment she learned a lot about herself, and it helped her think about what she wanted to do with her life and understand her goals for the future.


She is studying mass communication at Montevallo with a focus on multimedia Journalism. The skills from her pageants have helped her feel more confident about interviewing and talking with people.

With her mass communication major she plans to go into writing articles about weddings and different bridal things going on. She plans to work for “Alabama Wedding” or “Southern Brides” and is currently looking for internships for these companies.

She found her passion for writing about weddings from her time competing in pageants.