During Thanksgiving week, Nov. 19-26, the Slawski family will be in Orlando where Emily will be representing Sebastian at the 2005 Miss American Sweetheart Pageant.

The contests at the pageant will include evening wear, talent, sportswear modeling and a speech. The participants and their parents pay their own way.

It is sponsored by American Coed Pageants, (www.gocoed.com ) 4120 Piedmont Road, Pensacola, which holds state pageants annually for young women ages 3 to 21.

Emily qualified by placing third in the talent competition during the Miss Florida Sweetheart Pageant held at the Hilton Hotel in Orlando in September. The top finalists get trophies and have their pictures taken with the winner.

She danced to "All that Jazz." Emily prepared for that portion of the competition by taking dance lessons with Andrew Currie at Sebastian's Dance Space.

For the 2005 Miss American Sweetheart Pageant, Emily is practicing her dance for the talent portion of the competition. She will be dancing to a piece called "Get Happy."

Her involvement in pageants began in 2002, at age 6, when the Emily received a letter in the mail asking her to participate. Emily and her parents talked it over and Emily thought she would give it a try. So on Labor Day weekend 2002 the Slawski family traveled to Orlando for the annual Miss Florida Princess Pageant. There were 87 girls in her age group.

On the first day pageant employees show the girls how to walk and they are taught a dance routine. Part of the training also includes judges asking them questions in preparation for the competition. They practice answers, how to address people, how to stand and how to hold your body.

On the second day, all participants dance to an opening number and then the evening wear competition begins. The girls must have an escort take them on stage and Emily had her father, Ron as her escort. Emily had to say her name into a microphone and then she walked up and down past the judges.

Her second pageant experience took place during Labor Day weekend 2003. Emily placed seventh in the evening gown competition and also competed in sportswear modeling.

Emily did not compete in the 2004 pageant because of the hurricanes. But in November 2004 her pageant experience enabled her to be the hit of St. Elizabeth's Church Fashion Show, when she modeled fashions by Stein Mart in the church's parish hall.

In her most recent pageant this September, Emily placed third in the talent competition and seventh in the evening gown competition. There were 39 girls in this group.

There's more to Emily than just pageants. She enjoys dance and will be competing with 11 other members of Dance Space on Feb. 3-5 at the Hyatt Hotel at the Orlando Airport. The group will be dancing to the song "Proud Mary."

She takes piano lessons and loves drawing and bowling as hobbies. She is homeschooled by her mom, Marika, who was born in Sweden. Emily speaks Swedish and is also learning Spanish.

Emily's grandparents have a cottage in the country and a condominium closer to Stockholm, so she gets to experience both environments while in Sweden. Their time is six hours ahead of here, she noted. She loves swimming in the ocean there and during their last trip they visited a castle in Stockholm. She also enjoys seeing her two male cousins, ages 9 and 12.

Emily's mom is happy with her daughter's pageant participation. She noted that it is a family-oriented pageant and it has helped Emily build self-esteem and confidence.

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