Newtown High School Junior Named Miss Italy USA

By Nancy K. Crevier

Melania Fitzgerald is a fairly typical 16-year-old girl. She is down to earth and her family describes her as somewhat reserved. She likes to travel and is lucky enough to have visited several European and Asian countries. An honor student, Melania has also found time to put in more than 200 hours of community service. She dresses in T-shirts, jeans, and running shoes most days and much prefers the heel of her riding boot as she saddles up her horse, Seeka, to a four-inch heel on a stiletto.

Yet, four-inch heels are just what Melania wore as she strode down the runway this past March to be crowned Miss Italy USA in Miami, Fla. Melania, a junior at Newtown High School, and the daughter of Thomas and Fucsia Fitzgerald, will travel to Milan, Italy, in June to compete with 39 other girls from around the world for the Miss Italy of the World crown. They are the cream of the crop, selected from a starting pool of nearly 7,000 young women around the world. Coming this far in the competition is a surprise to her, said Melania, who had never entered a pageant before March. Having a beauty queen in their ranks is a surprise to her friends, too; Melania did not even tell her buddies that she was in the competition until the day before she left for Florida.

Her foray into the world of beauty pageants started the summer of 2006 when vacationing with her family in Italy. A friend of the family, involved in the fashion industry, urged Melania’s mother to consider entering her daughter in the contest sponsored by Sascha fashions of Italy. “I encouraged her. I thought it would be fun,” said Mrs Fitzgerald. After hesitating initially, Melania, who has spoken Italian at home since she was a toddler, agreed and found herself in New York City March 4 to compete for the first selections.

“I was a little nervous. I was the youngest one there and it seemed like a lot of the girls had more experience and knew what to do,” said Melania. Unlike the Miss America contest, there is no talent portion of the competition, said Melania. “The judging was based on personality and comportment mostly,” she said, and what was tricky was the fact that the judges were anonymous. “You could be talking to anyone during the day and without your knowing it, they could be a judge. After a while, I could kind of guess who might be a judge, but I never knew.” The most challenging part of the day for her, said Melania, was not the swimsuit competition or even balancing on four-inch heels for the formalwear portion of the show, but learning the dance that the girls performed that evening.

“I have never taken a dance lesson. I like to dance, but learning the choreography was hard for me,” Melania said. Regardless, her poise carried her through and Melania found herself selected as one of six girls from the area to continue on to the Miss Italy USA competition March 18 to 22 in Miami. There she joined 22 other young women winnowed down from the 342 who had competed in the nationwide competitions earlier that month.

The four days in Miami consisted of photo shoots, preparation for the evening show on the 21st, and more dance practice, with a little time thrown in for fun tours of the area.

“I think it is not like the Miss America contest,” said Melania. “Miss Italy is more of a cultural thing, and that’s why I agreed to do it.” And unlike the stereotype of backstabbing girls who get into catfights back stage, Melania found the other young women to be extremely likable. “Everyone was very nice and got along. I think that there is that cultural bond. Everyone has being Italian in common, so there wasn’t any cattiness.”

Once more, her natural beauty and composure shone through, and Melania found herself wearing the diamond tiara as Miss Italy USA 2007 when the competition was over, and on her way to the June 10 Miss Italy of the World contest.

“She is really shy. I can’t believe she did it!” exclaimed Mrs Fitzgerald. “We are so happy for her. I’ve seen her confidence grow this month.”

The winner of the Miss Italy of the World competition will win a one-year modeling contract with an Italian agency, said Melania, but she is more excited at the prospect of winning the car that goes with the contract. She does not view modeling as her preferred career. Rather, Melania, who not only is fluent in Italian but takes French and Spanish at school, as well, has her eye on college in Rome or Milan eventually. “I would like to pursue language arts in college and maybe look into the business side of the fashion world,” she said.

“I didn’t go into this competition expecting to win. It was just something new and different to do. No matter what, I’ll have gained the whole experience of meeting girls from all over the world. It’s definitely a good experience,” said Melania.