Teen pageant winner decrowned after dyeing hair brown

Olivia O’Neil fifteen-year-old recently won the title of Miss Teen Wanganui, but her reign was short-lived. In line with the New Zealand Herald, Facebook photos surfaced of her newly dyed brown hair (she was blond when she was crowned), and pageant organizer Barbara Osborne was incensed. “Is the fact that a wig?” Osborne wrote. “I really hope it really is, don’t give me coronary failure.”

Olivia admitted that she been in fact dyed her blond hair dark, and said that if she wasn’t allowed to dye her hair, then maybe pageant life wasn’t to be with her. “Well you better decide, miss. Hand over your crown with the attitude that way. I know someone will take on your house with manners,” said Osborne, adding that O’Neil “won’t make it in this world.”

Olivia lost the battle her crown and went directly to the Herald. “I do not think you can tell a 15-year-old them to aren’t gonna go very far in daily life,” she said. “It’s hurtful. She was always really harsh within the girls. And once she says stuff like ‘present yourself better,’ ‘wear a great deal of makeup,’ ‘do 20 sit-ups,’ it reaches you eventually.”

Pageant spokesman Jevan Goulter confirmed with The Herald that her crown was stripped as a result of hair dye. “The expectation in holding the crown [was] that she take care of the image she had when she won it,” said Goulter. But is the fact that an expectation or possibly a clearly stated rule? He insisted that O’Neil’s claims of harsh treatment behind the scenes are an exaggeration. “In a beauty pageant, it may not be about sugar coating and providing hypocrisy to the girls. They should be treated much the same way such as any other beauty pageant on the planet.”

We reached out to Jevan Goulter ourselves for just a reply to O’Neil’s standing. He responded, “I’d really like to make obvious that Olivia never had her crown taken from–she gave it back. The organization never removed it from her.” Goulter continued, “It absolutely was never about her changing her hair color. It absolutely was around the attitude plus the communication breakdown.” He said the pageant has offered Olivia and her father the chance for the live television debate to talk about the challenge. “We would like to see them accept this offer when they are completely confident about what they have said.”

Teen pageant winner decrowned after dyeing hair brown