One of many Phil Campbell High School traditions is the annual Dream Girl Pageant.

PCHS has crowned 50 Miss Dream Girls to date – including the 2017 Miss Dream Girl, Taylor Hallman, crowned in fall 2017.

The pageant is currently a PCHS Student Council-sponsored event and fundraiser for the organization.

Along the way, the pageant has incorporated a few tweaks in efforts of improvement, but nothing has changed about the Dream Girl standard over the past 50 pageants, according to coordinator Brandi Gholston. Each contestant goes through an interview as well as the formal beauty competition. Academic achievement is also a factor.

Not only does a Dream Girl win on grace and style on stage, she proves herself through the interview process as well.

Some of the other awards in the competition include Miss Congeniality, which is chosen among contestants, along with Audience Choice, voted on by spectators. Participants also compete in evening gown, poise and appearance, best hair, academic award, best smile and photogenic.

Only girls from Phil Campbell High School compete in this pageant.

A junior high competition provides the stage for girls in seventh and eighth grades. The top title of Miss Dream Girl is awarded to a girl from grades nine through 12.

Once a girl is crowned Dream Girl, she doesn’t compete again.

One thing Gholston wanted to implement after becoming Phil Campbell High School’s guidance counselor three years ago was a Little Miss Dream Girl Pageant for the elementary girls. The second annual Little Miss Dream Girl event, for girls in Pre-K through sixth grade, was held this year.

“The Little Miss Dream Girl Pageant is designed to mimic the Dream Girl pageant, with the exception of the interview, in which these little girls do not compete,” Gholston explained.