Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Staff Reports

Mary-Margaret Waddell, Miss Atlanta’s Outstanding Teen, will compete for the title of Miss Georgia’s Outstanding Teen during the week of June 10-18. The competition will take place in Columbus at the River Center for the Performing Arts. Mary-Margaret will have an eight-minute interview with the judges’ panel on Monday, June 13. Wednesday night, she will compete in fitness. Thursday, she will perform her talent, “Prelude in G Minor Op. 23 No. 5 by Sergei Rachmaninoff,” a classical piano solo. Friday night is evening gown and onstage question. The finale for the competition is Saturday, June 18, and the winner will compete for the title of Miss America’s Outstanding Teen in August in Dallas, Texas. Each candidate selects a social impact initiative, and Mary-Margaret selected the Make-A-Wish Foundation. In the last two years, Mary-Margaret has raised almost $4,000 for Make-A-Wish, which grants wishes for children with critical illnesses.  Mary-Margaret is no stranger to the Miss Georgia stage: she was a Miss Georgia Princess for seven years, and she was selected as the National Princess in 2013. Last year, Mary-Margaret competed as Miss Presidential Pathways’ Outstanding Teen and was named the recipient of a non-finalist talent award, complete with a scholarship.

Mary-Margaret is a rising 9^th grader at Southland Academy and is the 14 year-old daughter of Mark and Crystal Waddell of Americus.  She is on the All-A Honor Roll at Southland Academy. Mary-Margaret enjoys being part of the Miss America System which is one of the nation’s largest providers of scholarships for young women. Not only will Mary-Margaret compete for the title of Miss Georgia’s Outstanding Teen, but she also has the opportunity to earn cash and in-kind scholarships which will assist her in her academic pursuit of becoming a dermatologist.