Junior Amber Copley will represent Virginia in upcoming Miss USA pageant.
It's not being Miss Virginia USA that makes Amber Copley so lucky.
It's having two grandmothers who think she's the best thing since anti-frizz cream.
But sometimes it drives the 20-year-old Virginia Tech junior crazy.
A recent five-hour shopping marathon at Copley's favorite boutique -- The Encounter in Kingsport, Tenn. -- brought on a nail-chewing relapse.
Grandmother No. 1 (Angie Copley) and Grandmother No. 2 (Brenda Sprinkle) formed a tag team, producing dress after dress with the same dictatorial decree:
"Amber, we want you to try this one!"
For a beauty queen who doesn't like shopping all that much, it was torture.
Nevertheless, Copley ended up with the perfect evening gown for her trip to Baltimore, where she will compete April 21 for the title of Miss USA.
"It's gorgeous. It reminds me of Audrey Hepburn," she said, adding that she's sworn to silence when it comes to details. She can't even reveal the color.
"That's a big thing -- you've got to keep your color a secret," she said.
What isn't a secret is that Copley is going to the Miss USA pageant with every intention of winning. She even took this semester off from school to devote all her time to the event.
"Miss Virginia has not won Miss USA since 1970," she said. "That's too long. I'm here to change that."
Grandmother No. 2 believes if anyone can do it, her granddaughter can.
"She's going to do Virginia proud," Sprinkle said. "She doesn't have to create herself. Her beauty is there, inside and out."
And Angie Copley -- Grandmother No. 1 -- is sure her granddaughter is ready.
"I think she can win -- and I think she can handle it."
Angie Copley should know. She's the one who raised the striking brunette with the intense blue-gray eyes.
Amber Copley was 18 months old when she went to live with her paternal grandparents. Her mother and father were just teenagers themselves when she was born and weren't ready to be parents.
"She says she was raised by old people," joked 64-year-old Angie Copley. "My husband and I were laughing the other day about running around after a beauty queen at our age."
Before transferring to Virginia Tech, Copley attended the University of Virginia's College at Wise. An Abingdon native, she graduated from Abingdon High School where, she claims, "my favorite subject was lunch."
"I actually loved English," she said, "and I wrote for the school newspaper."
She was captain of the high school dance team her senior year but never tried out for the cheerleading squad because she didn't "know how they stay peppy all the time. It's a chore."
Since winning the Miss Virginia Teen USA crown as a high school senior, Copley has visited Washington County schools as a LifeSkills representative, teaching young people drug resistance, personal self-management and general social skills.
"I really love working with kids in middle school. Kids at that age are cruel. When I was in middle school, lots of kids told me I was fat. Boys laughed at me," she said.
"I had only one friend. I had frizzy hair and big thick glasses, I didn't wear the cool clothes and I was very, very shy."
Now, Copley said, she enjoys teaching boys how to give girls compliments.
She even shows them photos of herself when her classmates taunted her with names like "poodle head."
A communications major at Tech, Copley hopes for an acting and modeling career, but her secret passion has always been cooking.
"Since I was in fourth grade, I've wanted to go to culinary school," she said, noting that she is considering pursuing studies in culinary arts at Bristol's Virginia Intermont College. She received a scholarship from the college, site of November's Miss Virginia USA competition.
Eating, however, is something Copley has had to curb during pageant preparation.
"I have a very slow metabolism," she said. "I love to eat."
While she admits that her favorite dining experience would probably be dipping chips into cake frosting, she doesn't give in to the temptation.
The Miss USA pageant does have a swimsuit competition, after all.
"It's my favorite and my least favorite part of the competition," Copley admitted. "It's human nature not to be comfortable in 6-inch heels and a bikini with all those people looking at you.
"But I'm proud of the finished product. I sacrifice a lot to look good in a swimsuit. Someone else who doesn't have to work so hard for a good body doesn't have that same response."
Copley said she has lost about 20 pounds in the past year since becoming a vegetarian and working out consistently.
Calling beauty pageants her "sport," Copley said the thing she loves most is the self-confidence she has gotten from competing.
Although she doesn't wear makeup to her classes at Tech and claims she doesn't "do the girly-girl stuff at all," she has learned how to do the regal walk, the hair thing and the face painting for pageants.
Criticism from feminists and others who see beauty pageants as exploitation doesn't bother her.
"There's always going to be criticism," she said. "This is what I like to do so I'm going to do it."
Copley is spending the weeks before the Miss USA pageant on a hectic schedule leading up to the April 21 event, which will be televised on NBC.
One of the highlights is a three-day trip to New York City, where she will join Donald Trump for a book signing. The tycoon bought the Miss Universe Organization -- which includes the Miss Teen USA, Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants -- in 1997.
Copley expects a strong Virginia Tech contingent in Baltimore. Her boyfriend, Radford University student Grayson Deal, will be there to support her, too.
"He's so proud he can't stand it," she said.
But Copley knows the proudest smiles will grace two faces softened with a few wrinkles.
"I don't know what I would do without my grandmothers."
Pageant preparation
The hardest thing, Amber Copley says, is getting organized. She’ll need a minimum of two outfits and accessories for each day of her 21-day trip.
To fluff or not to fluff? Copley said rumor has it that “big hair” is on the way back. The naturally curly brunette now straightens her hair, but she might fluff it up a bit for the Miss USA judges.
Forget the name. Contest organizers never call contestants by their names. When someone shouts “Virginia!” Copley has to be ready to step up.
Focus! Copley knows she has to keep her mind focused, especially if she’s called on to answer a tough question during the pageant’s interview segment. She definitely doesn’t want to follow Miss Alabama’s footsteps in the 1994 Miss USA pageant when asked “If you could live forever, would you and why?” Miss Alabama’s response? “I would not live forever, because we should not live forever, because if we were supposed to live forever, then we would live forever, but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever.”
Long past due
Since the Miss USA pageant began in 1952, only two Miss Virginia USA contestants have won the crown: Danville’s Wendy Dascomb in 1969 and Norfolk’s Debbie Shelton in 1970.
Shelton went on to be the first runner-up in the Miss Universe pageant. Bobbie Johnson of Alexandria won the Miss USA title in 1964 but she represented the District of Columbia, not Virginia.
By Donna Alvis-Banks
TKPN
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