Trisha Maloney: from teen queen to campus celebrity
At 18, Trisha Maloney is about to give up the Miss Teen Jamaica crown and step into adulthood, excited about getting started on her dream of working in the foreign service after university.
“I like working with people and I like travelling, so although I am not sure exactly what I am going to do,
I think I would like to become an ambassador,” she said recently.
Although Maloney still has another two months to the end of her reign, she has already started thinking and acting adult.
A first-year student at UWI, Maloney believes she has much to offer the country.
“I really like meeting people and learning things about them,” the Campion College past student said. “That’s probably why I chose International Relations and why I believe that I will end up serving as an ambassador in some high commission.”
Maloney is the most humble, cheerful and friendly teenaged queen one could imagine. But, as she pointed out, “it wasn’t beauty that we were judged on when I contested last year”.
The Miss Teen Jamaica contest is 25 years old. Started in 1981 by veteran contest promoter Janet Sinclair, head of J’Sin Promotions, and mother of multi-million dollar fundraiser Courtney Foster, the contest has given hundreds of girls a chance to meet people, make new friends and eventually make a mark on the nation.
Arguably the most famous Miss Teen Jamaica was Nadine Thomas, who went on to win the Miss Jamaica Universe title in 1997. Now there is a sort of ‘former Miss Teen Jamaica contestants’ club at UWI, which includes Thomas, Maloney and Foster, who has had to reduce her fundraising activities as she travels to Barbados in pursuit of a law degree.
Maloney says the contest motivates contestants to strive for academic success because of the premium that is placed on intelligence and character.
Sinclair says that the contest has never focused on beauty and never will. “The contestants are always judged on things like intelligence, talent, grooming, discipline and Christian morals,” she pointed out.
It has always been interesting to see how nervous some of the high school girls become when they take on the challenge of the much-feared question-and-answer section of the contest. Adults have been shocked at how some of them fail to answer fairly simple questions. However, most eventually go on to do very well in their exams and even earn tertiary degrees.
“It is really a great experience,” Maloney said. “It gives you a chance to get out of the starting blocks early, go out and do things you always dreamt about. You get to meet people you didn’t even think you would ever meet, and do things you didn’t know you could do. For example, I visited Simone Dellop, who was a patient in the cancer hospice at Mona, while she was ill. She died a month after I visited her. But I will never forget her nor that visit.” More recently she has visited the
St Monica’s Home in Kingston and the Strathmore Garden Home in St Catherine.
“Being Miss Teen Jamaica has a lot to do with charity and a lot to do with being a role model for other teenagers and that is very important in building character. I think it is a good contest,” she said.
The finals of this year’s contest will take place on Sunday, July 16 at the Hilton Hotel, New Kingston.
