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Review-Journal
Ninya Mae Perna, Miss Nevada USA, knows how stressful a beauty pageant can be.
She first took the pageant stage as a 3-year-old in 1976, and it took five attempts before she won the Miss Nevada USA contest, which earned her the right to go to Shreveport, La., for the 46th annual Miss USA contest. Hosted by George Hamilton, the pageant will air at 9 p.m. Wednesday on CBS (KLAS-TV, Channel 8).
With several years of contest experience behind her, Perna believes she has as good a shot as anyone at taking the winner's walk down the runway. "I can do it," Perna says. "I'm just as capable. It depends on what the judges are looking for. I'm anxious to be one of the first to place for Nevada, if not win it all."
The pageant doesn't have a talent segment, which is just fine with Perna, 23. "I haven't discovered my talent yet," says the Henderson resident.
She will have to participate in a dance routine with 50 other title contenders (the District of Columbia also is represented in the contest). Which is not fine with Perna.
"I don't mind competing," says the 5-foot-8-inch contestant. "But I don't like the production number. I dread it every time out."
Slick dance steps or not, Perna says her personal traits will shine through.
"I'm a very true person. I'm me. I don't believe in changing to mold myself into someone else. I'm honest. I don't believe in beating around the bush. Honesty and sincerity are the most important."
To get to Shreveport and the Miss USA pageant, Perna won the Miss Clark County USA title, a preliminary competition held in 1995, but finished fourth in the state pageant that year. She also won the Miss Clark County crown in 1994. Then, in August of last year, after four defeats, Perna finally won the Miss Nevada USA crown and was named Miss Congeniality.
Early in her career, Perna won the 1979 Little Miss Texas contest, and went on to the Little Miss America pageant. As Little Miss Texas, Perna traveled around the country for four months without her mother, Cassandra Perna, along for the trip.
Cassandra felt it was a mistake for her daughter to be away from the family for so long.
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"I don't think that was too smart on my part. I wanted Ninya to be a little girl as long as possible and have a life," Cassandra says.
So, after one more contest, the Little Miss Central Texas in 1980, Perna did not enter any pageants during her childhood. She moved to Las Vegas in 1991, after graduating from Venice High School in Venice, Fla.
In 1992, she resumed competing, entering the Miss Nevada USA contest. She lost, and was devastated. "Now I know that only one girl can win," Ninya says she realized.
Perna, black-haired and brown-eyed, says competing in beauty pageants has been a learning experience.
"I've grown tremendously," she says. "You're competing against yourself. Even if you don't walk away with the crown, you walk away with something," such as communication skills.
Perna, who works as a front-desk clerk at the Monte Carlo, says putting herself in front of pageant judges and crowds of onlookers is a self-esteem booster. "You have to feel good about yourself to compete. You're capable of winning if you put your all into it."
She's also familiar with how easily a pageant can turn to disaster, as she found out at one event. A self-admitted procrastinator, Perna had taken her evening gown to the cleaners a day before the contest. When she went to pick it up at 5 a.m. on the day of the contest, she discovered that the gown's inside lining had been shredded in the cleaning process.
Perna was a trouper though. She went onstage wearing the gown, but she almost took a tumble on the dragging hem.
Her family has been "extremely supportive," she says. "They'll all be there in Shreveport. I couldn't have done it without them."
The Miss USA titleholder will move to Los Angeles where she will live in an apartment provided by the pageant, then will represent the United States in the Miss Universe pageant. She also will make personal appearances and attend various functions across the states.
Win or lose, Perna plans to attend a Bible college in Columbus, Ohio, and earn a bachelor's degree in biblical studies. "I want to be an ambassador for my beliefs," Perna says. "I believe with all my heart that this (contest) has already been taken care of. I'll just walk the steps."
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