Willowdean's pageant participation and disqualification

Willowdean’s pageant participation and disqualification expose the gap between declaring that a body should not be a source of shame and being able to withstand the scrutiny of a beauty contest. She withdraws when the pageant seems poised to confirm her fears; returns because Millie cannot compete without her; then knowingly replaces her approved talent with “Jolene.” The rules remove her from the competition, but not from the stage: she finishes the evening escorting Ellen, in a red gown and under her own name.

Withdrawal and the fear of what the pageant will prove

The decision to enter does not free Willowdean from the dieting logic that has shadowed her. As the pageant approaches, she imagines living on lettuce until her mother’s envisioned dress fits, then recognizes the old cycle: lose weight for the occasion, resume eating normally, and regain it, perhaps with more besides. Her memories of family diets arrive as a list of failed attempts—protein bars in fourth grade, Weight Watchers in fifth, and salads in second. The dress is not simply a garment she cannot wear; it becomes the immediate measure of a contest she believes she is already losing.

At her lowest point, Willowdean frames the pageant as a competition with her mother, though she says she had not understood it that way until then. Her own inventory is bleak: no dress, barely any talent, and an escort whose heart she is breaking without his knowing. She fears that entering will make a point, but not one she wants remembered. Her withdrawal follows from that anticipated humiliation: appearing onstage seems likely to make her difference more visible, not to challenge the standards that have made it feel disqualifying.

Returning for Millie

Hannah challenges Willowdean’s withdrawal by refusing to treat exclusion as an inevitable reason to stay away. She argues that contestants who fall outside the pageant’s usual ideal—including fat girls, girls with limps, or girls with big teeth—cannot alter what is considered normal unless they are present and demand a place. Willowdean counters that her body is the first thing people notice, whereas Hannah can keep her difference from being noticed. Their disagreement makes visibility itself part of the stakes: Willowdean experiences it as exposure, while Hannah presents participation as a way to contest the norm.

The decisive new fact is that Millie’s parents have made their permission conditional on Willowdean competing. Millie had pleaded to enter and explained that Willowdean’s mother runs the pageant; her parents agreed that Millie could participate if Willowdean did too. When Willowdean dropped out, Millie’s chance disappeared with her. Hannah insists that this is not a joke or an abstract gesture for Millie: she has long admired and studied the contestants and finally has the chance to become one. Willowdean concludes that, even if she cannot bring herself to seize the opportunity as Millie has, she should not stand in Millie’s way. She returns expecting disaster, but the decision shifts the meaning of her entry from a test of her own worth to support for a friend.

Preparing to compete

The pageant’s scale makes the return concrete. Contestants receive the Friday before the event off school for interviews and demanding dress rehearsals, where blisters, double-stick tape, and tears accompany the preparations. The production is presented as a substantial Clover City event, not a casual high-school show. The night before, Willowdean takes her wardrobe to the community theater for approval, with her mother, Mallory Buckley, and Mrs. Clawson involved in checking it.

Her formalwear is a sequined black dress from a donation pile in Lucy’s room. It is new with tags but wrinkled, and all three women make her promise to steam it. For swimwear, she chooses the red-and-white polka-dot swimsuit she bought the previous summer but had not dared wear; her other option is a black one-piece with lint balls on the back. Her talent costume is assembled from what she already has: a flapper headband worn on Halloween, the black dress from Lucy’s funeral, and her mother’s black satin gloves, borrowed on the condition that they be returned before the formalwear segment. The preparations leave her entering with an improvised wardrobe, while the contest’s approval process and rehearsal schedule reinforce how closely the event regulates what contestants present.

The performance and disqualification

Willowdean sings “Jolene” rather than performing her approved talent. She hears some audience members singing along; after the song, applause drowns out a brief oink. Her mother catches her by the arm as soon as she leaves the stage, but rushes away to announce the next contestant before Willowdean can answer. Callie warns her on the way to the fitting room that using a different talent will get her disqualified. Willowdean does not stop to argue that the risk is worth it.

The consequence is immediate and explicit. Her mother tells her she is disqualified and cannot finish the pageant because allowing her to continue would be unfair. Willowdean asks why she cannot at least walk, reasoning that she is unlikely to win, but her mother answers that she broke the rules and that the same standard would apply to anyone. The ruling is not presented as a misunderstanding: Willowdean knew the act could disqualify her, yet had hoped her mother might show mercy. With less than an hour left before she would have completed the pageant, she is surprised by how much the forced ending hurts.

The exchange continues while her mother struggles with the zipper of her own Miss Teen dress. Willowdean pulls, but the zipper remains about four inches short of closing. The scene places a specific physical constraint beside the contest’s formal rule: neither effort nor goodwill can make the garment fit. Her mother’s strict decision and the failed zipper sit together without resolving the tension between them; Willowdean is both punished for her deliberate choice and still drawn into helping her mother prepare.

A different return to the stage

Before the evening-gown round, Willowdean finds the red pageant dress her mother bought her rolled inside her duffel bag. She changes into it, puts on her heels, and hurries to Ellen, who is waiting in line with Bekah Cotter ahead of her. Ellen zips the dress without hesitation and tells Willowdean she looks amazing; Willowdean answers that she knows. The exchange gives her a moment of confidence after the disqualification, but her next action is not an attempt to reclaim her contestant place.

When the organizers ask where Ellen’s escort is, they begin to remind Willowdean that she has been disqualified. She interrupts to say that she is Ellen’s escort. She loops Ellen’s arm through hers and walks her across the stage, using the practiced step Lee taught them. Her mother’s mouth falls open, then curves into a faint smile as she announces Willowdean by name as Ellen’s escort. Willowdean lets Ellen take her turn at the edge of the stage before they return backstage together.

The pageant continues with other contestants and their escorts, including Amanda with her older brother, Millie with Malik, and Hannah with Courtney Gans. Hannah appears in a black slip dress and combat boots, without makeup, and is not breaking a rule. Willowdean, by contrast, has crossed a stated boundary and been removed from the competition; she can still stand beside Ellen, help her take the stage, and be publicly named. Her participation therefore ends neither in a prize nor in a completed contestant walk, but in a changed role: the girl excluded for refusing the approved performance becomes the escort who helps her friend appear before the same audience.