Sebring student goes from tomboy to pageant queen

Sebring High School sophomore Rachel Smit described herself as "unique," while others at school called the strong-built teen the Hulk, Superwoman or Sasquatch.

A television show makeover changed all that for the girl who guys wouldn't ask to dates but rather to arm wrestle. The 15-year-old said she hadn't outgrown the 10-year-old tomboy/skater chic stage last year as a freshman. She usually dresses in baggy sweat pants and a baggy shirt with tennis shoes, no makeup and with her hair up. But during the five-week taping of the MTV show "Made," Rachel underwent a dramatic change.

"By the end of the episode, you can tell how much I changed because my face got thinner and I looked totally different," she said Thursday.

The "Pageant Queen - Rachel" one-hour episode of "Made" will debut on MTV at 4 p.m. Tuesday. A tease or preview of the episode can be viewed now on the MTV Website - mtv.com.

The MTV camera followed Rachel everywhere from July 3 through Aug. 9.

"You can't even fit all the stuff I've been through on that," Rachel said. "They are just going to pick out the worst parts to embarrass me."

Rachel's mother, Mary Smit, said her daughter was like a tomboy and always spending time with her horses. Rachel has never been into makeup, Mary said. "She tried now and then - she did it to go to a party, but you could see that she is not comfortable wearing dresses and now she is in high school and they have all those parties and you have to be dressed up," Mary said.

Before she was chosen as a subject of an episode, an MTV crew filmed Rachel in May for two days in school and at home and with her friends.

"I didn't expect to be picked because they already had so many pageant episodes," she said. Rachel said the producers decided to do a show with her after she told them she never had a boyfriend and never had a first kiss.

The show sent Rachel for a week in July to the Miss Teen Fantasy Camp in the Bahamas, where she stayed at the Atlantis Paradise Hotel during the Miss Teen U.S.A. Pageant.

"We got to go backstage at Miss Teen U.S.A. and we got to learn choreography and got hair and makeup lessons," she said.

The twice-a-day fitness workouts and very strict diet were aggravating, Rachel said, but she lost 18 pounds.

"I would wake up really early and do fitness," she said. "I was always hungry, too, like, I live in Sebring, Florida, we eat fried chicken all the time here, we do not eat salad and egg whites."

Rachel's coach, who was in Highlands County for most of the five-week taping, was LauRen Merola, Miss Pennsylvania U.S.A. 2008 and fourth runner-up in the 2008 Miss U.S.A. pageant. She was also a Miami Dolphins cheerleader"My camera lady was really cool and my coach was really cool; it's just the producers wanted drama and that's what we had to do," she said. "I would never regret doing the process, but the producers made it so frustrating."

Rachel's preparation and training culminated with her competing Aug. 7 in the Miss Florida High School Pageant at Ormond Beach.

Now she is planning on entering the Junior Miss Highlands County competition.

Rachel is not sure where she will watch the show when it airs Tuesday.

"Probably alone so I don't hear everyone's comments on it," she said with a laugh. "After [viewing] the sneak peek I'm just like, 'Oh God they are going to try to make me look bad throughout the whole thing.' I don't really want to watch it so it's like cancel it; don't put it on the air," she added.