Ten-year-old Tatiana Castañeda of Ceres participated in the state pageant of the Our Little Miss Scholarship Foundation pageant and came away as the state winner in her age category.

A Whitmore Charter Elementary School student attended the pageant held in Fresno Oct. 22-24, competing against about six or seven other contestants in the 10-12 year age group. She was crowned the winner and will move on to compete in the world title at the Our Little Miss World pageant held Jan. 13-17 in Houston, Texas.

The daughter of Raul and Jozell Castañeda previously participated in and won the regional title before advancing to Fresno. The pageant in Fresno involved over 50 contestants among all the age categories.

The pageant involved interviewing, modeling and a talent, which was dance in Tatiana’s case.

“It’s a natural pageant, meaning there is not a lot of makeup and false eyelashes and things like that,” said her mother Jozell.

The “Our Little Miss” pageant has for 60 years been providing girls with a great experience to build self-esteem, learn about giving back to the community, develop public speaking skills and making long lasting friendships and memories. 

Since 1962 over 1,000 girls have earned scholarship funds from pageants and have enrolled in American, Canadian, European, Asian and Caribbean Island universities.

Past participants have included Jennifer Love Hewitt from “Party of Five” and Madlyn Sweeten from “Everybody Loves Raymond”, and most recent Brec Bassinger star of the Nickelodeon  hit show “Bella and the Bulldogs.” 

The pageant’s philosophy is that by giving children an outlet to express themselves and their talents, they can grow and develop aspects of their personality, communication, discipline, memory training and good grooming habits. Because parents play an important role when a child is in any competition, the family relationship is enhanced, especially that of the mother and daughter.