Forget about stilettos. Instead, Gabrielle Swavely's sparkly tiara pairs perfectly with muck boots, rubber gloves and a milking apron.
Swavely is Pennsylvania's Dairy Princess, the reigning winner of a state pageant where contestants are judged on their passion for promoting the sale and consumption of milk and dairy products.
The princesses are not just there for the crown. They also work on dairy farms tending to cows and their offspring.
The state pageant dates back to 1956 when a Miss Milk Maid Contest was organized by the Pennsylvania Association of Milk Dealers and Pennsylvania Dairymen’s Association.
Today, the Pennsylvania Dairy Princess and Promotion Program has grown to almost 50 dairy princesses who represent 45 counties in the Keystone State.
"I think the biggest difference with the dairy princess program versus some of the other commodity titles and pageants is that there is really such a passion for what we represent and who we represent," Swavely, 21, said. "To have the attention, the title and a pretty crown that's great, but let's bring that attention to a cause worth representing."
In addition to attending Penn State University full-time and working her day job milking cows at the Dreibelbis Farm in Pennsylvania Furnace, Swavely's devoted much of the year mentoring the state county princesses, who will compete for the crown Sept. 23 to 25 at the state pageant in Altoona.
One of those hopefuls is Wayne County Dairy Princess Madison Roberts.
"My presentation will focus on all aspects of the dairy industry from farm to table," Roberts, 16, said. "I have collected some neat things such as an old milk truck, some antique milk bottles that were around my farm, a little tractor model with some cows, and an old milker that was used on our family dairy farm."
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Life on the farm
The dairy princesses are milking their experience for all it's worth.
On the farm, they know the ins and outs of taking care of the dairy cows and have witnessed countless births of baby calves.
Katerina Coffman, one of the state's alternate Dairy Princesses (she is joined by Kristin Johns) helps milk 150 cows daily on Tom-Glow Farms in Petersburg, which is owned by her grandparents.
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"I really enjoy working with the animals because I get to build bonds with them and watch them grow from a calf to a being a productive member of the herd," she said. "One of my favorite jobs is when a cow has a calf and we give the mom an electrolyte mix just to get her on to the next step of being the best she can be ... in a safe and healthy manner."
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Supporting agriculture
For the princesses, wearing the crown means educating the public about the positive impacts the dairy industry has on the commonwealth.
According to the Center For Dairy Excellence, Pennsylvania is ranked seventh in total milk production nationally and the state's annual milk production per cow is 21,320 pounds — or about 2,508 gallons — per cow.
Following Wisconsin, the Keystone state also has the second largest number of dairy farms at 5,430.
And as Coffman points out, while producing milk dairy, her family farm spends money locally creating a ripple effect in the economy.
"Ninety-nine percent of the state's dairy farms are family-owned and operated, and It's families like mine that are investing in our local communities," she said.
She notes that every one dollar a dairy farm spends, roughly $2.50 in wages and related business transactions is contributed to the local economy. The state’s dairy farms produced nearly 10.7 billion pounds of milk in 2020, generating an estimated $3 billion in on-farm income. Applying the multiplier effect, that income supported close to $7 billion in economic revenue for the state and its local communities, the Center For Dairy Excellence said in a report.
Every farm's milk and dairy products are distributed differently, but in case you're curious just ask a dairy princess how to support your local farm.
Hint: You'll find the answer in your fridge.
"There's a lot of local farms in Pennsylvania that ship to smaller dairies," Johns said. "The state has something called a PA Preferred logo — all things produced in the state will have that logo,'" Johns said. "Also, there's a little code on the bottles of milk and pretty much any dairy product. The first two numbers coincides with what state it was processed in. Forty-two means the milk is processed in PA and (sourced) from Pennsylvania dairy farms."
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Berks County Dairy Princess Mikayla Davis, 20, and her family raise Holstein heifers, the most common dairy breed in the United States.
Working on a family farm comes with challenges, she said.
From calf care (milking and feeding the cows, monitoring the herds' health, making straws beds) to cleaning the barn and milking system, there are round-the-clock responsibilities.
It’s also rewarding.
"We're hardworking, we're dedicated. We love our animals and we're always there for them," Davis said. "We'll doing anything for them. Farmers work 24/7. We don't get a break. We're constantly out with the heifers, making sure they're safe. They're our livelihood. We love them."
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On the job, Swavely's favorite thing to do is feed the baby calves.
"I love not only seeing the current milking herd, but being a huge impact on the next generation of the cows who are going to be brought up on our farm — and giving them the best start of life that I can," she said.
"I think a lot of people don't understand that cows have their different personalities. Yes, they do have ear tags that contain a number, but that is only for identification purposes. Every one of the cows has a name, and they all have such a distinct personality about them, whether that's a good one or a bad one."
The road to reign
As a rule, prospective princesses (ages 16 to 24) must come from a dairy farm, a dairy-related background or own dairy animals.
They also must serve as a junior dairy promoter or their parents must be employed in the dairy industry or an agribusiness that serves it.
Both Coffman and Davis have been involved in pageants since they were small including the Little Miss Dairy Princess, Dairy Miss, Dairy Maid and Dairy Ambassador pageants.
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Swavely, who got involved in the pageantry at 18, has a different story.
"The thing I battled with this whole year is having this feeling of not belonging because I didn't grow up on the dairy farm,'' she confided.
"I was not actively involved in 4-H or FFA, so I really battled with feeling like I didn't fit in the dairy industry," she said. "But I'm farming everyday, I'm milking cows, I'm loading hay wagons — I'm doing the whole thing. You don't have to come from a dairy farm to be passionate about this industry and support it."
Sure, people may judge a sash and crown, but it's up to the carrier to convey character, Swavely said.
"The tiara is the microphone. You have a crown on your head, which I always say is like a sparkly microphone that amplifies your voice, and people want to talk to you because you have a crown on your head.
"So make it worth your while — share your story."
So, what does it take to win the crown?
In July, Swavely, Coffman and Johns led a four-day training seminar for 38 county princesses where they talked about the nutrition of dairy foods, public speaking, media interviews, social poise and personal appearance.
Call it the perfect prepper for pageant weekend.
At the two-day event, each princess will be interviewed and participate in meet-and-greets with the judges.
They then will share their dairy presentations and skits, speeches and scrapbooks, and complete a dairy promotion knowledge quiz.
Creativity is key.
One of Swavely's skits — which captured the hearts of judges during her first pageant run in 2019 — involved a "meet cute'' with a stuffed cow and three dairy products.
"I had a game show set up where I had a bachelor, who was a cow stuffed animal named Philip Cup, and he was trying to find his perfect dairy match," she recalled.
"I had three different dairy products: Molly Milk. Mary Margarine and Annie Almond beverage. I went through the profiles as if I was setting up this cow to go on a date with one of these three lucky contestants. I got the crowd involved too, to find out who was the best one for their heart and their quote-unquote love life."
Johns was crowned Berks County Dairy Princess in 2020. Her winning scrapbook (with personal photos and detailed notes) unveiled her work on Tulpa-Canal Farm in Womelsdorf during the height of the pandemic.
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"My theme was on the journey of my reign so I wrote about how I had always dreamed how my reign would be, but due to COVID all of these things changed," Johns, 20, said.
"At times, it almost feels like I was handed a ripped map with a broken compass. However, even throughout the trials, it was still a joy and I know it's still going to be the journey of a lifetime."
Who holds the next tiara remains yet to be seen, but the reigning dairy princesses offer some legend-dairy advice.
Johns, whose late grandfather, John Stump was a well-known dairy farm advocate, recounts something her siblings, Samantha and Kayci (former Berks County Dairy Princesses in 2010 and 2012, respectively) would agree with.
"I would tell her to just be her. Be exactly who she is was created to be and to never let her passion for the dairy industry to disappear," she said.
"There's no guaranteed way to win, but through my experience the judges aren't looking for a perfect person because they know a perfect person doesn't exist. They're looking for someone who genuinely loves the dairy industry and who will do whatever they need to do to promote it, and also enjoy themselves while doing it."
Go: 2021 State Pageant is scheduled for Sept. 23 to 25th at Blair County Convention Center, 1 Convention Center Drive, Altoona. For more information, go to padairy.org.
Micaela Hood is a lifestyles reporter for the USA TODAY Network Mid-Atlantic features team and is based at the Pocono Record. Reach her by emailing mhood@gannett.com.