{"id":4641,"date":"2007-07-27T13:18:10","date_gmt":"2007-07-27T18:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/?p=4641"},"modified":"2010-12-20T11:00:08","modified_gmt":"2010-12-20T16:00:08","slug":"5748","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2007\/07\/27\/5748\/","title":{"rendered":"Miss Michigan Encourages Faith, Healthy Lifestyle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Stan Friedman<\/p>\n<p>MUSKEGON, MI (July 27, 2007) \u2013 The new Miss Michigan says she wants to use her own experience with anorexia and recovery to encourage other young women with eating disorders.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nKirsten Haglund, who has grown up attending Faith Covenant Church in Farmington Hills, won the state pageant in July. She chose \u201cRaising Awareness of Eating Disorders\u201d as her platform.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve gone through it,\u201d Kirsten says. \u201cI can speak from my own life. I\u2019ve seen the effects on people and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.covchurch.org\/uploads\/-Z\/wa\/-ZwazcqwYGtHiD2fp77z6Q\/Michigan.jpg\" alt=\"Miss Michigan\" hspace=\"4\" vspace=\"4\" align=\"right\" \/>Kirsten, who performed in soloist roles in the <em>Nutcracker<\/em> in Key West, Florida, and was the principal dancer in <em>Cinderella and Aladdin<\/em> ballets, once longed for a career in ballet.\u00a0 She began to diet when she saw how thin other dancers were and thought she had to be the same. \u201cThen I started cutting out more and more food.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Against her will, Kirsten was forced to tackle her own problem when she was 16. \u201cWhen I came home from ballet camp, my mom said, \u2018You\u2019re way too skinny,\u2019 and she took me right away to the doctor. I didn\u2019t think I had a problem, and I was very upset.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kirsten won\u2019t discuss the depth of her weight loss. \u201c(Advocates) try to stay away from numbers,\u201d she explains. \u201cOtherwise someone might say, \u2018Well, I\u2019m not down to that.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n<p>Six months would pass from the time her mother took her to the doctor and Kirsten accepted the fact that she needed help. She worked with doctors, nutritionists and therapists to get well. Now 19, Kirsten says her intense Type A personality contributed to her illness, but also helped her recover.<\/p>\n<p>She says she needed the help of others as well. \u201cMy church and my family have been so supportive,\u201d Kirsten says. \u201cI have had the most amazing church.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now that she is healthy, Kirsten is critical of the perfect body image to which women are encouraged to aspire. She adds there is no incongruity between the ideals of the Miss America organization, explaining that the organization promotes the whole person, women in leadership, and community service.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, she says, \u201cThis job has been completely therapeutic,\u201d adding, \u201cI need to maintain a healthy lifestyle. I can\u2019t be a hypocrite. I really want to help young women.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kirsten says it is important for people with eating disorders to redefine themselves. \u201cI know who I am,\u201d she says. \u201cI define myself by my accomplishments, my character, and my faith.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kirsten already has accomplished a lot. She is a peer advocate for the Women\u2019s Center at the University of Cincinnati and program coordinator for SEED (Students Educating About Eating Disorders), a member of the National Honor Society, and leader of the choral group Musica Octavius, which was featured at the Michigan Youth Arts Festival.<\/p>\n<p>Her faith has been nurtured in the church and through her family, she says. \u201cMy parents have an amazing faith, and the women in the church have been real role models for me.\u201d Kirsten\u2019s mother, Iora, is Faith Covenant\u2019s pastor of congregational care, and her father, Valdor, is the lead guitarist for the worship team, with which Kirsten also has sung.<\/p>\n<p>Kirsten laughs as she recalls that at children\u2019s camp, \u201cI think I recommitted my life to Christ every year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ken Larson, pastor at Faith Covenant, says Kirsten \u201ctakes her faith very seriously.\u201d She currently attends Forest Park Covenant Church in Muskegon, where she has temporarily relocated because it is the home of the Miss Michigan program.<\/p>\n<p>Kirsten is taking a year-long break from her studies at the University of Cincinnati\u2019s Conservatory of Music. No longer pursuing a ballet career because of what she believes are unhealthy demands on the body, she is working towards a degree in musical theater performance. (She performed \u201cAdele\u2019s Laughing Song\u201d from the Johann Strauss operetta \u201cDie Fledermaus\u201d in the Miss Michigan contest).<\/p>\n<p>The new position already is keeping her busy crossing the state to various events, including parades, festivals, and meetings with service organizations. \u201cIt is a little crazy right now,\u201d she says. A chaperone from the program or her mother always accompanies Kirsten.<\/p>\n<p>Kirsten\u2019s mother was surprised by her daughter\u2019s decision to enter, explaining, \u201cShe\u2019s not competitive at all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For her part, Kirsten says winning was \u201ca wonderful gift and surprise,\u201d but she was calm and peaceful when she won. \u201cI didn\u2019t feel like it was a competition. I felt like I was living out God\u2019s plan.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kirsten has followed the Miss America pageant since she was a girl and volunteered at different Miss Michigan events. She never planned on entering the competition, however, but the cost of out-of-state tuition changed her mind.<\/p>\n<p>She initially won the Miss Oakland County competition to qualify for the Miss Michigan contest, which awards a $10,000 scholarship to the winner. Kirsten hopes to add to her college fund in January, when she travels to Las Vegas, Nevada, for the Miss America contest.<\/p>\n<p>She is not the first person in her family to win the contest. Her grandmother garnered the title in 1944, but offered little advice to her granddaughter. \u201cShe was the only brunette on a stage of all blondes,\u201d Kirsten notes. \u201cShe just said be yourself. If you\u2019re the one they want, then they will pick you. If not, then they won\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-report-this\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire?moderation_action=report_form&#038;object_type=post&#038;object_id=4641&#038;width=250&#038;height=300\" class=\"thickbox\" title=\"Report This Post\">Report This Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MUSKEGON, MI (July 27, 2007) \u2013 The new Miss Michigan says she wants to use her own experience with anorexia and recovery to encourage other young women with eating disorders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Miss Michigan Encourages Faith, Healthy Lifestyle - 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