By BRYCE McLEAY
J Alumni News staff
Miss Nebraska Brittany Jeffers
Brittany Jeffers is not your stereotypical beauty queen.
Jeffers may be the current Miss Nebraska, but she is no stranger to hard work and dedication. Working as the weekly morning and midday anchor for KLKN’s Eyewitness News in Lincoln, she puts in a grueling 9-hour shift every weekday morning beginning at 3 a.m.
Yet, for someone waking up at a time when most people her age are just starting their REM cycle, Jeffers seems to thrive on her long mornings.
It doesn’t take more than five minutes to get the sense Jeffers is a well-respected and charismatic beauty pageant queen who moonlights as a successful news anchor – kind of like Miss Congeniality with a microphone.
Jeffers, a 2008 graduate of the College of Journalism and Mass Communications, ended her reign as Miss Nebraska in June. She said passing the crown to a new queen was bittersweet.
“I always say I feel sort of uncomfortable in [the crown], which is funny because I worked so hard for it,” she said. “It kind of represents a goal and not necessarily who I am, but I will miss it dearly.”
Jeffers came relatively late to the pageant scene
Despite sweeping the competition at the Miss Nebraska pageant and becoming a top-10 finalist in the Miss America pageant — a feat no Miss Nebraska had accomplished in more than 30 years — Jeffers had been participating in pageants for only a few short years.
“I think people have a misconception in that they think I started on ‘Toddlers & Tiaras’ at the age of 3 and have been working ever since,” Jeffers said with a laugh. Jeffers’ fascination with Miss America and Miss Nebraska began when she met Miss Nebraska 1991 Vicki Train. Nevertheless, Jeffers did not start appearing in pageants until age 18 while she was applying for college scholarships during her senior year at Ogallala High School.
When she discovered the Miss America Program is the largest scholarship provider for women — awarding about $45 million a year — she knew she had found her niche.
“I ended up competing for five years and was able to pay for my entire college tuition and now with (the money from) Miss America, I have enough to pay for grad school, too,” she said.
From Nebraska to the national stage
After she won the Miss Nebraska title in June 2009, Jeffers began preparing for the national competition. The Miss America Pageant is an organization that prides itself on being a forum for empowering American women to express their opinions, talent and intelligence.
From the moment they woke up each day, the contestants had schedules packed full of rehearsals, media interviews and appearances — all with a TLC camera crew following them round the clock. Still, Jeffers said she approached this pageant the same way she had the others.
“I went into Miss America wanting the job — the same exact way I went into Miss Nebraska,” she said.
To showcase her talent, Jeffers used her 17 years of tap, jazz and ballet dance abilities and danced to “So Much Better,” a song from the Broadway musical version of Legally Blonde.
Jeffers knows how to interview and be interviewed
Jeffers attributes her strong communications skills and her background in reporting to her spot in the top 10. Those skills were especially helpful in the interview portion of the competition when Jeffers was grilled by infamous media commentator Rush Limbaugh. Jeffers said she really appreciated how challenging his questions were, but she thought she held her own.
“I had to take it out of my mind that I was talking to Rush Limbaugh, but it ended up being wonderful, and I don’t think I would have been able to handle that without having a broadcasting background,” she said.
Jeffers was able to sharpen her techniques as a broadcasting major at the J school. The knowledge she gained while attending UNL has allowed her to fulfill personal, groundbreaking goals in both her job as a reporter and as a pageant contestant. She has nothing but praise for the college, especially its faculty.
“I think journalism students are so fortunate to have such a dedicated staff whose help reaches far beyond the classroom,” she said.
And the faculty remember her fondly as well.
“Brittany was one of my favorite students,” said broadcasting faculty member Trina Creighton. “She is just as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside. She is smart, articulate and a quick study.”
Jeffers said she was not the average college student while attending UNL. When her classmates were on the beach in South Padre, Texas, during spring break, she was planning community service projects, gearing up for the Miss Nebraska Pageant and focusing on her education.
All the effort she put into her work at the J school and the service projects that prepared her for the pageant helped make her the kind of person likely to succeed in competition.
“Brittany is very intelligent and articulate and is able to communicate her thoughts well. She is also a very genuine, well rounded young woman,” said Jay and Amy Engel, executive directors of the Miss Nebraska pageant, in a joint statement.
Creighton agreed: “It makes me so proud to watch her progress on KLKN TV. She will be a super star.”
Being Miss Nebraska is a job in itself
Although her duties as Miss Nebraska were unpredictable, Jeffers was dedicated to her work in the role, despite the erratic scheduling.
“A lot of people think that I rode around on a float, preached world peace and ran around in a swimsuit all day,” she said. “Oh, there are parades, but parades are not the job.”
As Miss Nebraska, Jeffers also traveled all over the state to spend time with school-age students and make appearances at other civic organizations.
“You could literally be anywhere on any given day,” she said. “You are at the governor’s mansion one day, the Legislature the next and then you are on a farm in the panhandle of Nebraska.”
It’s a real job, she noted.
“I was paid for the appearances that I did, speaking to and working for the community.”
During these appearances, Jeffers was usually promoting her platform — a partnership with Dove for Real Beauty and Girl Scouts — called “Uniquely Me: Promoting Self-Esteem in Adolescent Girls,” which is something she takes great pride in.
Now that her year under the crown has come to an end, Jeffers is ready to focus on a new chapter.
“I’m really looking forward to focusing on my career full-time. Everyone has been very supportive (at KLKN). I love being in Lincoln getting to work out the kinks of the job and hone my skills as an anchor,” she said.
The Engels, on the other hand, think the sky is the limit for Jeffers.
“She is comfortable with people from all walks of life, engaging them in conversation and encouraging them to discover and achieve their dreams,” they said.
Whatever happens next for Jeffers, one thing is certain: she won’t forget her pageantry past anytime soon.
“I was lucky … the pageants just kind of found me,” she said.
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