Yeay! It’s the weekend. America’s Next Top Model finale is next week. Project Runway has only one more week until Bryant Park. Never fear, Miss Virtual World is just hitting its stride!

Miss United States, Janina Scarmon

Janina: I am a very genuine person.  I love to meet people and I have a great sense of humor.  I try to help out anyone who needs it, even those I have just met.  I give advice tactfully and try to help the people that I give it to see a positive side as well as the things that may need to be changed. And I also want them to know that I actually am from the USA born and raised there all my life.

Kate: I love Emerson. Tell me about the quote you chose in your profile, “Love of beauty is Taste. The creation of beauty is Art.”
Janina: I chose that quote because I feel that we love to look at beauty in everything around us.  Even in our avatars and the clothes we wear.  To be able to create such beauty like the clothes and skins and shapes, as well as buildings we see here in SL, is truly the work of an artist. We avatars are the canvases for those artists’ creations.
Kate: Do you feel your avatar is your palette?
Janina: Yes.  I try to create something beautiful to add to the SL world.  Even the people who make the animations I chose to use are artists because they help me to move more gracefully and to get away from that newbie walk we all have when we are rezzed into this world.  Each of us is an artist of ourselves in some way. The skins and shape and clothing I chose to combine help to add beauty to the SL world. We are all in some way creators of who we are here. And we all strive to be unique from all the others around us
Kate: Yes, the avatar mesh could be an art from all to itself. Are there other ways you like to express your artistry in SL?
Janina: Yes.  I love to create environments which are enjoyable to the senses.  For instance on my island right now I have all the colors of fall.  The trees have the fire colors of fall in them.   And I have set it up so anyone can come and be there to dance or just relax.  Its part of what I give to all the SL community. I also do amateur photography although my skills are not as good as some of the wonderful photographers that are within the world of SL.  A lot of the pictures in my Flickr page are the ones I took myself.
Kate: Speaking of service… you belong to Guiding lights? Can you talk a little bit about that?
Janina: That is a training program for people who want to be peer support. We are taught basic helping skills so that we can support those who need help the right way. It’s like a mentor program in that we are there to learn to help others. So that we are better able to do it responsibly.
Kate: Interesting… not exactly the nuts and bolts of Second Life like the SL mentors, but more of an emotional expertise?
Janina: Yes, that’s correct.  We are given information and taught how to guide the people we help to the right resources
Kate: That’s really neat… SL can really do a number on your heart if you aren’t careful!
Janina: Yes it can. However it also provides a place for those who have not connected with someone to be able to talk to another human person at the keyboard.
Kate: I will admit, reading your profile, it was the first time I ever heard of Guiding Light, but it seems like a natural for SL. How did you become involved?
Janina: I was looking for a way to become a mentor here because I naturally seem to do that a lot.  I happened to be searching one day and found the place where they have the meetings.  You have to put in an application and have it screened before they let you enter the program. They look at things like SL age and things that show how committed you would be to the program. I find that getting in and getting involved in a positive way makes my time here more fulfilling.  I don’t feel like I am wasting it doing something else.
Kate: I completely agree. I do the same thing.
Janina: You are very good at it too, I imagine.
Kate: LOL… I dunno…
Janina: LOL   In all of us there is the capacity to do some good for others. We just have to find the way to do it that is right for each of us. It can be through a mentor program or through creating content to help make an avatar’s world more enjoyable.  I find that every time I am out I end up helping someone in some way.  It’s part of my nature.
Kate: Tell me your absolute favorite hair designer and style
Janina: Absolute favorite?   hmmmmmmm  It would have to be Truth Hawks.  I love his hair designs because he creates something for every occasion and the texture and colors are so realistic and dynamic
Kate: zomg! I LOVE Truth!
Janina: My favorite would be all of the ones I own  lol  but if I had to chose one it would be the one called Katherine. That is the one I wore in my MVW picture.
Kate: aha! Lovely updo! And blondes are so hard to do in SL since windlight.
Janina: Oh I know and he uses the low and highlights so well in the hair. It’s just not one shade if you look at it. I can add hair ornaments or flowers to it to dress it up even more. I have about 20 or so of his hairs. I have to fight the lag every time to get them.
Kate: Me too. Many of the finalists followed a road from modeling to MVW. Is this your path as well? Why did you apply?
Janina: Well I actually had just started modeling when I auditioned.  I was in the first group. I know there were many experienced models there that day, but I knew I wanted to try and do it. Just to make it through auditions. LOL  And I had just finished modeling academy.
Kate: The auditions are extremely stressful… were you nervous?
Janina: Yes! Some of the other women ahead of me fell off the stage.
Kate: Do you think the barriers were removed on purpose?
Janina: I am not sure.  LOL  I had learned a very valuable trick that helped me though.  I had learned to be in pose before I walked so when I stopped I would not do that newbie thing and that day my poser was not cooperating so I stayed in the same pose at the circle until Frolic told me to go.
Kate: So what advice would you give someone… who wanted to try to be a finalist… about how to choose clothes and a look for the audition?
Janina: As far as clothes, go for simple and elegant, even in your jewelry.  It will not only give you the image that is right but also help with the lag.  Also learn the trick I did so that you look lovely when you stop on the runway.  And think positively even when things don’t seem to cooperate, like the poser.
Kate: Is there anything you would like to talk about that we haven’t touched on up until now?
Janina: I would like to say that this whole MVW experience has been wonderful and I have met many lovely ladies from all over the world.  I now have friends from different countries that I didn’t have before I started this journey. That is one of the best rewards that I have gained from being a part of this pageant.

The Grand Finals for the Miss Virtual World will be held at the Patch Thibaud Auditorium on December 19, Saturday. See you there!

Kate Stockholm is a senior staff writer for Best of Second Life Magazine and a Miss Virtual World Organization executive. She was last year’s Miss Sweden and winner of Miss Congeniality.