Seventeen-year-old Tori Clarke of North Battleford will be heading for Toronto in August for the Miss Teenage Canada pageant.
Entering a pageant is something she's wanted to do for a long time.
"Since I watched Miss Congeniality," she laughs.
She adds a friend took part and told her it was a good experience.
The John Paul II Collegiate student from James Smith Cree Nation competed in the Miss Teenage Canada Saskatchewan pageant on the May 2 weekend in Saskatoon, and is looking forward to the pageant in Toronto, where she will spend six days starting Aug. 2.
"I ultimately want to be a good role model for kids and I think it's important for them to have one starting at a young age," says Clarke. "I think I would be a good one."
If she is successful in Toronto, she plans to get as involved in the community as a mentor to youth.
"I'd take every opportunity I could use to make myself a better person and help little kids realize they are all good enough, too."
She adds that this is a goal regardless of how the pageant goes.
"I've met so many girls already, it's opened my eyes to opportunities," she says. "My dreams really can come true."
Apart from the pageant, Clarke's plans for the future include taking a year off from school after graduating to travel to Costa Rica, where she will also volunteer at an animal sanctuary, and to Australia.
Following that, she plans to study sonography in either Calgary, Alta., or Burnaby, B.C. She became interested in sonography when her sister was pregnant, she says. She went to the ultrasound appointments with her and they left an impression on her.
"I thought it was cool and wanted to help mothers like that, help them see their babies," she says.
