Congratulations to Miss Teen USA 2008, Stevi Perry of Arkansas! I'm quite happy with this win as Stevi is a lovely girl and will do a fine job as the new titleholder. The results were such a tease for me. Arkansas was right at the bottom of my top 15 predictions list strangely enough and my winner and 1st runner up ended up placing 2nd and 3rd. Such a tease!!! Even though I judged based on a few pictures of the delegates, I actually did a decent job with my predictions this year as I got 9 of the 15 semifinalists and 2 alternates. The 4 semifinalists that weren't in my list were Alabama, Idaho, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, although after seeing Pennsylvania's gown, I regretted not including her in my list. There will be more commentary in days to come.
In the beginning though, Miss Teen USA gained automatic entry into the Miss USA pageant if she met the age requirement. The first Miss Teen USA, Ruth Zakarian of New York was crowned by then reigning Miss USA, Julie Hayek of California. However, the 1984 Miss Teen USA pageant was held prior to Miss USA 1984. Cherise Haugen of Illinois won the 1984 Teen pageant and this resulted in both Ruth and Cherise competing at the 1984 Miss USA pageant. Both Miss Teens however did not make the top 10 at Miss USA 1984 when Mai Shanley of New Mexico impressed the judges with her speaking ability all the way to the crown. 1985 winner, Kelly Hu was too young to compete at Miss USA at the time that she won but Kelly came back in 1993 looking unbelievably stunning and placing 4th to Michigan's Kenya Summer Moore. 1986 winner Allison Brown competed at Miss USA 1987 and didn't place in that pageant. I guess they got the hint the next year and decided that Miss Teen USA would no longer gain automatic entry at Miss USA. Future Miss Teen USAs would have to compete again at the state level and win the right to represent their states at Miss USA. Kelly Hu, Brandi Sherwood, Jamie Solinger and Shauna Gambill managed to do so successfully on their first tries. However, Christie Woods and Ashley Coleman unfortunately were unable to capture their respective state crowns. Christie Woods attempted 3 times at the Miss Texas USA title. Her highest placement was 3rd runner up in 2002 to Kasi Kelly, although many people including myself thought Christie would take it that year. In 2003 and 2004, Christie placed as a semifinalist at Miss Texas USA and then aged out. Reminiscent of Christie's placement, Ashley Coleman also placed 3rd runner up but this was at Miss California USA 2006 which was won by Tamiko Nash who placed 1st runner up at Miss USA 2006.
But Kari bravely continued on and even went on to compete at Miss USA 1990. In 1985, Kelly Hu won the Miss Teen USA crown and went to become one of the most successful titleholders landing several roles including her performance the Sorceress in 'The Scorpion King' where she starred opposite Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson. Enchanting Kelly served as a special commentator during the 1990, 1991 and 1993 Miss Teen USA pageants and of course won the Miss Hawaii USA 1993 title and competed at Miss USA 1993 placing 4th although many thought she could have taken it all but it was not meant to be. Michigan's Kenya Summer Moore captured the Miss USA title but Erin Nance (who was unplaced at Miss Teen USA 1988 but went on to win the title of Miss Teen All American) was the first runner up at Miss USA 1993 and Tavia Shackles (who was a semifinalist at Miss Teen USA 1990) also managed to place ahead of Kelly finishing 2nd runner up at Miss USA 1993 which was also held in the state Tavia was representing (Kansas). 1986 winner Oklahoma's Allison Brown returned to judge the 1995 Miss Teen USA pageant. 1987 winner Kristi Addis enjoyed some notable roles and appeared in music videos. That awesome pageant with the totally 80s 'I Wonder Who's Hot Tonight' opening number is forever etched in our memories as one of the best. 1988 winner Oregon's Mindy Duncan literally seems to have vanished off the face of the earth. I guess she decided to live a life of anonymity after her reign. The 1988 pageant also had a notable disqualification when California's Alison Moreno was caught sneaking out of her room to meet her boyfriend but Alison did win the Best State Costume award. 1990 winner Oregon's Bridgette Wilson also is among the more successful Miss Teen USA winners enjoying some notable acting gigs and a marriage to tennis player Pete Sampras. 1993 winner Charlotte Lopez who took on the professional name of Charlotte Ayanna was among the most notable Miss Teen USAs who won her title to the joy of many since she was a foster child who was 'lost in the system' and Charlotte has enjoyed success in various acting roles including being featured in Ricky Martin's video for 'She's All I Ever Had'. Although the class of 1996 was a great group, none of the semifinalists from that year managed to make it to the Miss USA stage although many of them including Christie Woods, Michelle Cardamon, Leah Sexton, and Jennifer Smith all tried. Only Amanda Carraway and Sarah Cahill made it to the USA stage. 1998 winner Vanessa Minnillo has also been a successful host and notable media celebrity and is dating singer Nick Lachey and of course, Vanessa hosted Miss Universe 2007 and Miss Teen USA 2004 which was won by Shelley Hennig, who also is enjoying acting success and hosts the 2008 Miss Teen USA pageant.
The pageant has had a series of hosts beginning with the very handsome Michael Young who hosted 1983, 84, 86 and 87. Michael was briefly married to Miss Universe 1987, Cecilia Bolocco and he also served as a host for the Mrs. America but very little seems to be known about his current whereabouts. 1985 was hosted by Lorenzo Lamas who was then starring on Falcon Crest. In 1988, the former host of American Bandstand, legendary Dick Clark hosted the pageant and he returned to host the 1991, 92 and 93 pageants. The 1992 pageant was held while it was rumored that Hurricane Andrew was making its way through the Mississippi resulting in two crownings being pretaped. One for the actual winner Iowa's Jamie Solinger and another for the 1st runner up Oklahoma's Angela Logan. 
Immediately, the audience was evacuated and they only found who the actual winner was when the pageant was broadcast on CBS. 1989 was hosted by Wil Shriner. 1990 was hosted by Sandy Duncan from Hogan's Heroes (the first female main onstage host for the Miss Universe family of pageants). Bob Goen hosted from 1994 to 1996. J. Eddie Peck hosted in 1997. It was Mario Lopez in 1998, 2003 (with Brooke Burns) and 2007, Carson Daly in 1999, Brian McFayden in 2000 and 2001 (with Mandy Moore), Chris Kirkpatrick and Willa Ford in 2002. Tony Potts and Vanessa Minnillo hosted in 2004, Galen Gering and Susie Castillo in 2005, and Damien Fahey and Shaun Robinson in 2006 and this year's event is hosted by Shelley Hennig, Miss Teen USA 2004 and Seth Goldman. Some color commentators for the pageant included Morgan Brittany in 1983 and 1986, Heather Thomas in 1984, Lisa Hartman in 1985, Tracy Scoggins in 1987 and 88, Marcia Strassman in 1989, Leeza Gibbons from 1990 to 1992 alongside Kelly Hu (90, 91, 93) and Bridget Wilson (in 1992), Arthel Neville in 1993, Daisy Fuentes in 1994 alongside Jamie Solinger, Maty Monfort in 1995, Shari Belafonte in 1996, Ivanka Trump in 1997, and Ali Landry and Julie Moran from 1998 to 2000.
Miss USA 2000, Lynnette Cole was 4th at Miss Teen USA 1995, Miss USA 2003, Susie Castillo was a non semifinalist at Miss Teen USA 1998. Miss USA 2005, Chelsea Cooley was also a non semifinalist but at Miss Teen USA 2000. Miss USA 2006, Tara Conner was 3rd at Miss Teen USA 2002, Miss USA 2007, Rachel Smith was a semifinalist at Miss Teen USA 2002. This makes Miss Teen USA 2002, the first class to have more than one Miss USA titleholder. Some other delegates have had similar placements at both pageants. For example, Kentucky's Kristen Johnson was 2nd runner up at both Miss Teen USA 2000 and Miss USA 2005. Texas' Nicole O'Brian was 1st runner up at Miss Teen USA 2000 and 2nd runner up at Miss USA 2003. Kansas' Danielle Boatwright before winning an episode of the show 'Survivor' placed as 2nd runner up at Miss Teen USA 1992 and 1st runner up at Miss USA 1996. The list goes on and on.
For example, in 1986, musical performers included Bobby Rydell and Frankie Avalon (teenage idols of a different era) as well as the Commodores performing their hit 'Nightshift'. At the same time, many teen pageants were including the new teen hits of the time. 1987 had a very 80s feel, 1988 saw the delegates dancing to a remake of 'I Saw Her Standing There', the Beatles hit remodelled by Tiffany who was very popular then. In 1990, there was the use of Madonna's 'Vogue' as the swimsuit competition song and some 90s hiphop beats were incorporated throughout, yet the evening gown competition was set to the hits of Roy Orbison. Also in the 1990s, the evening gown competition would be set to a 'medley of dreams' with the use of Bobby Darin's 'Dreamlover', Roy Orbison's 'Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream)' and the Everly Brothers' 'All I Have to Do is Dream'. 
In 1996, the Monkees did a special performance while the delegates walked to the current hits Theme from Mission Impossible (old meets new) for swimsuit and the music of the late Latin pop princess Selena during the evening gown competition. However, from 1997 onwards, the pageant seemed to be geared solely towards the teens of the current generation with little to no incorporation of the teen cultures of yesteryear. Could this have been a factor that led to the demise of Miss Teen USA on network television? One can only wonder...