A few days ago, I got an email from future stylish peep Ashley Jacklyn, telling me about her soon-to-be sister-in-law, Lizmary Perez. A 17-year-old beauty pageant queen who is running for USA National Miss Garden State Teen. Ashley told me that Lizmary has till July 22nd to get enough votes to make it to the Top 16. Instead of reposting the links to vote, I wanted to meet Lizmary and hear her story! We met for a cold drink at 9 Bar Cafe in downtown Jersey City.

Lizmary is a natural beauty queen, she is smart, funny, upbeat and absolutely jaw-drop stunning… it was so fun getting to know her and also getting the behind the scenes look into being a pageant queen. We even tested her U.S. history knowledge (I just got my American Citizenship so it was fun to ask her all the questions I had to learn).

What’s your name? My name is Lizmary Perez.

What do you do? I do pageantry. Everybody thinks it’s based off of beauty but it’s actually not. It’s off of brains, they ask you political questions, and I like to show people that it’s not all about beauty.

Can you tell me your story? I have two titles: I am USA National Miss Garden State Teen and my other title is Junior Miss New Jersey State Teen.

When did you start doing pageants? I started about three years ago and I finally won this November so it took me three years to win. But it shows that you never give up and even though I wanted to, I didn’t.

How did you get into it? I started watching Toddlers and Tiaras and then in the mail, I got to do a pageant, they sent. And then I was like, “Okay, I’ll try it out,” and then I fell in love.

I’m sure event wants to know the behind-the-scenes of pageantry, is it the same as reality TV? No, it’s not. Backstage we’ll be dancing; we’ll be eating, pigging out our faces, and on our phones taking pictures. People think that we sit there nervous, like no, we’re just having fun and we like to make friends out of it.

How do you prepare for a pageant? You can practice your walk, you can practice interviews, you can ask your families to take some pictures of you and record you interviewing. Give them a paper of your resume and tell them to just say random questions. You can practice in many different ways, but you never know what to expect.

What’s your talent? For my title, I don’t have a talent.

Oh, really? Yeah, there’s Miss America, that’s talent based pageant. I like USA, Universe which is just swimsuit, evening gown, and interview.

Are you from Jersey City? Yes, I am.

Where do you live? The Heights.

How do you feel Jersey City has changed in the past couple of years? It’s changed a lot and I love how their making all these new, gorgeous buildings and they’re actually starting to help and cleanup is what I like.

Do you have a favorite hangout spot? Toricos, definitely, I mean it’s right there. That’s my favorite ice cream; I can get a pint of their cookie dough ice cream and eat it in like a day.

How old are you? Seventeen.

Where do you go to school? William L. Dickinson.

How are you juggling school and being in a pageant? Well, they understand that you’re in school so they’ll make your pageant weekend Friday night to Sunday. [In] pageantry, you need to have good grades. So when you apply for a pageant they ask for your report card, they don’t want a Queen that has C’s or a really bad GPA.

So you need to study? Yes.

And when they do there’s the national competition they do it in the summer because they know thats when everybody’s off school, even the college people.

So what’s next for you? Right now, I am leaving on Sunday to go compete for the International  Junior Miss Teen title and then one day after I am going to compete for the USA Miss National Teen title, so I am going to be gone for like two weeks straight.

How does your family feel about it because it’s expensive and they have to drive you? They support me and that’s what I love. It’s been such a crazy week, but they’re next to me and they’re helping me.

So do you want to be like Miss USA? Miss America? I want to be Miss New Jersey Teen USA or New Jersey USA and then I want to become Miss USA and then hopefully, Miss America.

Amazing, that’s exciting, wow. So what do you do for fun? I don’t even know. I can just go home and sleep. I am the type of person that will have fun doing anything. I just like to hangout, it doesn’t have to be an actual place or anything.

How do your friends feel about you being in pageants? They always think it’s like Toddlers and Tiaras, they’re like, “You don’t get tired of smiling?” I’m like, “No, you just learn to deal with it.

How do you guys know each other? She’s my brother’s fiancée.

Who did your hair? The salon.

In Jersey City? Yes, the one down by Puccini’s.

What’s it called? It’s called Racelly’s Hair Studio; it’s by #23 School and Puccini’s.

You are the most put together seventeen year-old I’ve ever seen in my life. Thank you, that means so much.

So what is your go to look for your pageants? I love two pieces. So I’ll get a two-piece crop top and shorts or two-piece crop top and shirt. That’s my favorite kind of outfit; I wasn’t planning on wearing this.

I was expecting you to come in a gown. Yeah, I was going to come in like a dress maybe but we were running late.

Anything else you’d like people to know about you? Please vote for me for the National People’s Choice Awards. You vote for your favorite contestant [and] the person with the highest gets automatically put into the Top 16.

When is that happening? So this has been happening for two weeks now, it ends on the 22^nd.