Wolfson Campus Student Runs for Miss Florida USA
Standing at 5-foot-5 inches tall and weighing 109 pounds, Isabel Logins, a 20-year-old blonde hair, blue eyed Wolfson Campus student, fits the beauty pageant mold.
This is fitting, since Logins was crowned Miss Florida Keys USA 2017 on March 11.
“It’s like a job,” said Logins, who now has her sights set on the 2017 Miss Florida USA pageant, which starts on July 13 in Fort Lauderdale. “I feel like it’s my second job.”
With the title, Logins has to do a lot of community service and modeling. Every day is different, and her responsibilities can take up to 20 hours per week. Winners are required to maintain a classy image, so they cannot post certain things on social media.
Miss Florida Keys was the first pageant that Logins participated in. She does not reside there.
“It was nerve wracking, because it was my first one,” Logins said. “But because I practiced so long with Rogelio, I just got used to it and was able to do it.”
Rogelio Morales, Logins’ pageant coach, was also her co-worker at Estée Lauder at Nordstrom in Aventura Mall. He has worked as a makeup artist with pageants for 12 years and got into coaching eight years ago.
Morales says that what made him think Logins was perfect for the pageant was her physical beauty and her personality.
“She needed to be queen,” he said.
Logins described Morales as her “pageant godfather,” because he does everything for her— from managing her to doing her makeup. There is no talent portion, though Logins practices how to walk on stage and how to talk.
She aspires to be a TV reporter. While at Wolfson, she has worked as a staff writer for The Reporter, writing briefs and columns for the past two years. Logins has also done three on-air stories for MDC in Focus.
Being crowned Miss Florida Keys has given Logins media exposure and training. Pageant winners often use their status as a stepping stone to media work.
Logins was born and raised in Miami. Her father’s family is from Ukraine and her mother is from Uzbekistan. At home, she and her family mostly speak Russian, though they sometimes speak English. She said that her family has been very supportive of her. According to Login, they have turned into pageant parents and are constantly helping her.
To join the world of pageantry, all Logins had to do was register on the official Miss Universe website. From there, she was allowed to compete at any pageant in Florida. The only qualification was that she had to be a U.S. citizen and a Florida resident. She paid a $300 fee to enter the Miss Florida Keys pageant.
“So from here, you can compete for Miss Miami, Miss Tampa, Miss Kendall, Miss Hialeah and then from then on we all compete for Miss Florida,” Logins said.
With the Miss Florida pageant right around the corner, July 13 through July 16 (it will be aired on WSVN 7), contestants need to stay fit, which Logins said does not mean starving themselves but staying on a diet and exercising.
“We don’t just stand there and look pretty,” Logins remarked. “There’s so much more to it. They also do interviews,” Logins said. “We go through a whole interview process, like a job interview, and we have to dress professionally, fully covered, nice, classy, and we get interviewed based on a bio sheet that we submit about ourselves. It asks our education, what we do outside of pageants, our family history, things like that.”
Logins said that unlike how reality television portrays it, none of the young women in the pageants are mean.
Fatima Coello, the director of Miss Florida Keys, said pageants are beneficial for college-age women because they are competing for scholarships and having a voice. Despite the focus on appearance, Coello believes pageants are feminist.
“Really it builds a stronger woman,” Logins said. “It’s not telling you to be weak. It wants a woman to be beautiful, smart, and empowering.”
Logins plans to go beyond Miss Florida. Her goal is to go all the way to Miss Universe. She graduates from MDC this summer and will transfer to Florida International University.
