Sleeping Beauty

After years of not being heard, Miss Vermont is finally ready to make some noise  

Story by Dimas Sanfiorenzo

Photos courtesy of Nydelis Ortiz

When Nydelis Ortiz’s name is called on May 15, she won’t respond. She won’t even hear it. And even though she is the first person from her family to graduate from college, she won’t walk up and receive her diplomas — one in Spanish and one in business.  She won’t be sitting in the Old Chapel Green at Castleton State University, wearing an all-black cap and gown, with the rest of her graduating class. Instead, she will be in Las Vegas, practicing her walk, answering questions, and preparing to represent Vermont in the 59th Annual Miss USA pageant.

“It’s a bummer,” Ortiz says about missing her graduation. “But I’m still excited. I still get my diplomas, and they’re going to recognize me at graduation, which is nice.”

Vermont and the Miss USA pageant have a long tradition together — a long tradition of losing. In fact, a long tradition of not even getting close. The last woman from the Green Mountain State to reach the semi-finals was Georgia Marie Davis in 1982 — eight years before Ortiz was born. The lone winner of the crown to come from Vermont was Carlene King Johnson back in 1955. This minor tidbit, however, hasn’t stopped Ortiz from showing up on Sunday night and attempting to “hopefully, come back with the crown.” Strong words for someone who once had very little to say. 

The Ortiz of today is vastly different from the one people knew just a few years ago. Today, Ortiz is talkative, easy going, social and — oh, by the way — getting ready to work her charm on roughly five million Americans. But when she was younger, she was a quiet child who preferred studying in the back of the class instead of making grand speeches.

Ortiz spent the first six years of her life in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In 1995, her parents moved her family to Burlington, Vt.  It was a move that wasn’t easy for anyone. Nydelis and her older brother were trying to grasp English, while both parents were working full-time jobs. For Ortiz’s mother, Doris Rivera, it was an exhausting experience that lasted from getting her children ready in the early morning to tucking them into bed at night.

“(At bedtime) I would start telling a stor,y and I would fall asleep while reading it, and then she would wake me up and say, ‘Mom — what happened?!’” Rivera remembers. “That was a lot of fun, but a lot of sacrifice because it was very hard. But I think I did the best I could.”

“I never thought I would be one of those girls walking down (the) stage. I always felt they were so elegant, so polite, and so beautiful. I never imagined myself doing that”

When not bugging her mother for bedtime stories, Ortiz would spend her time flipping through fashion magazines, dressing up her Barbie dolls, and watching beauty pageants — the epitome of a girly girl, an image Rivera would encourage as much as possible. 

“Since she was little, I always liked to have her look clean,” Rivera says. “Not a lot of fancy stuff because we couldn’t really afford it, but she was always clean and with the best clothes we can buy her. And she was always happy with that.”

It was only a matter of time before Ortiz would put these feminine qualities to use. When Ortiz was 14, her history teacher, who was directing a beauty pageant, suggested that she try to compete.

“I never thought I would be one of those girls walking down (the) stage,” Ortiz says. “I always felt they were so elegant, so polite, and so beautiful… I never imagined myself doing that.” 

Ortiz ended up competing in front of a crowd at her school auditorium. It was clear she wasn’t Miss Vermont material just yet, as she ended up doing “terribly.” However, even though she was “scared out of her mind” during her first pageant, that fear didn’t stop her. Throughout high school, she kept competing, winning Miss Vermont National Teenager and Massachusetts Perfect Teen.  And with each pageant, her personality started to bloom.

“I do believe pageants help the girls a lot with public speaking,” Rivera says . “It teaches them how to be around older people, young people, diversity… and it helps them be organized and follow certain goals.”

“She probably thinks about (the pageant) every minute she’s awake... that’s not even close to an exaggeration. Every minute she’s awake, she’s thinking about it”

Her pageant run led her to 2008's Miss Vermont competition — one she didn’t win. But, not surprisingly, Ortiz came back the next year and took home the first place crown. Now she has Miss USA on the horizon.

“She probably thinks about (the pageant) every minute she’s awake,” says Nathan Long, a friend of Ortiz. “That’s not even close to an exaggeration. Every minute she’s awake, she’s thinking about it.”

Getting prepared for a pageant includes all the typical aspects, such as eating right and keeping in shape, but it’s the interview portion that has stumbled many a contestant — Caitlin Upton’s 40-second rambling session from the 2007 Miss Teen USA Pageant comes to mind.  So it’s the aspect Ortiz has been practicing constantly to make sure, come May 16, she’s not involved in any YouTube moments.          

“I definitely want to get Vermont recognized, but not in that way,” Ortiz says.

As for what comes after the pageant, Ortiz is planning to morph her business degree with her own pageant style.  She sees herself owning her own clothing boutique, specializing in high-fashion threads.

“In Vermont, there’s not really a lot of options for that type of high-fashion clothing and designer clothing,” Ortiz says. ”So I think if I brought that to Vermont, that would be great — especially in Burlington.”

Fifty-eight others have come from the Green Mountain State and have walked that stage Ortiz will soon walk. Only one has walked away with the crown. And even though Ortiz is an underdog, there is one person who speaks so confidently about her chances that she can be heard all the way from Vermont.

“Oh, she’s going to win,” Rivera says with certainty. “And if she doesn’t win the, you know, title, for me she’s a winner. She’s already a winner in my eyes.”

Who is the most memorable Miss Vermont candidate?

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