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Date: 12/8/2021
EASTHAMPTON – The Distinguished Young Women of Greater Easthampton hosted their 56th annual competition on Nov. 7. Nora Giannetti, a high school senior from Southampton, was crowned the winner.
The Distinguished Young Women of Greater Easthampton is a local chapter of the national organization based in Mobile, AL. Girls from Easthampton, Southampton, Westhampton, Williamsburg, Chesterfield, Haydenville and Worthington in their senior year of high school were able to compete for scholarship money.
Giannetti won a total of $6,200 in scholarships.
“It helps to encourage the young woman’s furthering of education to develop a career going forward,” said Jennifer Lawton, chairperson of Distinguished Young Women of Greater Easthampton.
Giannetti will now compete in the state-level program this winter.
To prepare for the competition, the girls participated in an eight-week program to develop life skills such as interviewing and speaking in public. During the competition, they competed in the five categories of scholastics, interviews, fitness, talent and self-expression.
Giannetti said that she entered the program because she loved competing and also loved how Distinguished Young Women focused on qualities other than outer beauty.
“I’ve always loved competing and being on stage. I danced for 12 years and, due to injury, I had to stop, so I really missed being on stage and competing,” said Giannetti. “I loved Distinguished Young Women so much because it wasn’t focused on your outer beauty. It was focused on so many other things like scholastics, interview qualities and all of these other things like how you expressed yourself rather than what you looked like.”
She said that she was completely shocked when she won the competition.
“I am very hard on myself, so if I do a little thing wrong that even only I notice, I get very down on myself. I always nitpick every little thing I did that day that might’ve been wrong, so, in my mind, I didn’t think I was going to win,” said Giannetti. “I was completely shocked, but then looking back at the entire day and what I’d done, I realized that maybe I didn’t do as bad as I thought. Maybe I actually did pretty good.”
Lawton said that Distinguished Young Women of Greater Easthampton will be hosting another program in the spring. Due to COVID-19 delays, seniors were able to participate in the recent competition. Upcoming competitions will be open to girls from any of the seven towns in their junior year of high school.
“To get back on our schedule, juniors will be eligible to participate in our program in the spring and that will be for our Distinguished Young Women 2023. They always label it the year that they graduate,” she said.
Lawton encouraged girls to join to learn valuable life skills.
“I think that it develops life skills for young women that they will use in college, in jobs and in their day to day life. I think there aren’t enough programs available to high school teenage girls that demonstrate the power that they have to make change, to be a force out there in the working world. We’ve come a long way, but not far enough and I think that this type of program allows them to develop those skills to be role models, to be influencers and to be successful in the years to come,” she said.
Giannetti also emphasized how great the competition is for building self-confidence.
“It is an amazing opportunity to put yourself out there and to be able to build confidence in yourself and to know that you can do this,” said Giannetti.
She noted that the competition is a great way to make lasting friendships.
“The one thing that stood out to me was the friendships that evolved throughout the whole thing. There were only seven of us which was a very small amount compared to years past, but everybody who was competing just became so close. As rehearsals went on, they didn’t become as tiring or as strict. They just became more fun as time went on and you got closer to everybody,” she said.
Those interested in learning more or entering future competitions are encouraged to visit the Distinguished Young Women website at https://distinguishedyw.org/.