By Daphne Chen

Twenty-eight years ago, Vicki Graham stood on a stage with a dozen other women in evening gowns. She heard her name called – she had been voted Miss Texas USA’s 1981 Miss Amity (now known as Miss Congeniality). But looking to her left and right, Vicki realized that the stage was too narrow for her to pass.

So she did what she had to. Putting her hands on the shoulders of the woman on the floor in front of her and gathering up her skirts, Vicki jumped four feet down in heels to receive her award.

Twenty-eight years later, her daughter, senior Natalie Hill, might be repeating the scene when she goes to Houston in September to compete in the very same pageant.

“Since my mom was in the Miss Texas pageant, we’ve kind of always gotten news from them,” Natalie said. “They e-mailed me one time, and late one night, I sent in my application because I might possibly one day I consider doing it. A couple weeks ago I got a letter, and it said, ‘Natalie, congratulations, you’ve been chosen!’ There was a handwritten note from the president that said I should be Miss Coppell. “

Sitting together on her pink bed, chatting about finding the perfect evening gown, Natalie and her mom almost seem to be sisters. Besides their physical similarities and obvious beauty, they also share the same birthday in a coincidental twist of fate. At the Miss Texas USA pageant, Natalie will hold the official title of Miss North Dallas (her mother was Miss Hurst-Euless-Bedford). Like Natalie, Vicki also applied to be her local pageant winner on a whim, having lived in Florida until six months before she won the Miss HEB pageant.

“I did it truthfully for the experience,” Vicki Hill said. “It’s like skydiving or scuba-diving; it’s something that not everybody gets a chance to do, and I knew it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I love people, and I think Natalie is that way too. I’m a big relationship junkie. I liked the idea of being with that many people and interacting and I didn’t go in there expecting to win anything.”

The importance of pageants in Texas can hardly be overlooked. Although the Miss Texas USA pageant lasted 10 days in Vicki’s time (now cut down to two and a half for Natalie), the Miss Texas USA pageant produces more Miss USAs than any other state, and pageant contestants still continue the age-old tradition of applying Vaseline to their teeth to force them to continue smiling. However, both Hills are determined to remain grounded throughout the process.

“Have you ever seen the show ‘Toddlers and Tiaras’?” Natalie said. “It looks ridiculous. And the show is just horrible, so I’m picturing these terrible moms, and just expecting a bunch of makeup and blush and hairspray. It reminds me of my dance recital days.”

Because the Miss Coppell/Miss North Dallas pageant was an application rather than a stage event, Natalie has still never experienced a true televised pageant like Miss Texas USA, just like her mother at the time. Vicki still talks candidly about the shallowness that tinges most pageants, and how she avoided it.

“The thing that I brought away from it was being able to share my faith with a lot of the girls there, and what was really awesome about that is that at the end of the 10 days, they still voted me Miss Congeniality,” Hill said. “Even though I was really upfront, and there was partying and boys in and out, I was just myself and that’s not something I did, so I really thought it was cool. When I look back, it’s like it was one of those ‘what goes around comes around’ moments. If you do the right thing, you get blessed for it.”

At Miss Texas USA, Natalie will compete in an evening gown, swimsuit and interview competition, and will be judged based on “poise, personality, intelligence and beauty,” according to state director and president of Miss Texas USA Gail Clark.

“I think they learn a lot, not just as a matter of what they learn throughout the two-and-a-half days, but also in the preparation for it,” Clark said. “They just put a lot into it, and we find pageants to be extremely confidence-building and that girls really grow out of the experience.”

Although several months away from the competition, Natalie is still anxious – about making friends, about getting swimsuit-ready, about how her walk needs to be “cuter”. But her mother believes in Natalie.

“The question is what’s important,” Vicki Hill said. “Are they just looking for a gorgeous girl? Well, she can do that. But I don’t really think that that’s what she is. I think if you unzip Natalie, she’s even more beautiful on the inside. And most people won’t even get past that, to see what’s on the inside, and I wish they did.”

On Labor Day weekend, the week before Natalie will fly to her first year of college at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia, Vicki will watch her daughter, the exact same age as she was when she won Miss Congeniality, arrive in Houston and meet over 100 other pageant hopefuls. She will watch her walk across a stage, sit through an interview and try to make friends. What will her daughter be worried about?

“I’m known to be quiet, so I want to open up more,” Natalie said. “I want to basically just be more like my mom.”

“I don’t want her to be like me,” Vicki immediately replies. “She’s so much better than me.”

Like mother, like daughter.