A Brief History of Best in Pageantry

Curious how Best in Pageantry began? Here’s how it’s evolved since 2014 to become the most transparent award system in the industry.

The Beginning
Best in Pageantry began in 2014 as “Steven’s List.” It was a simple WordPress blog where Steven personally ranked people in the industry he knew. That’s when the first rumor began that you had to “know Steven” to make the list. (Fun fact: the gift baskets that showed up back then were legendary.)

The Panel Era
As the idea grew, Steven built a small team, and rankings were created through open panel discussions. It was still limited to people they knew—similar to how most other awards in pageantry still operate today. That same year, he chose not to include a few people he knew, which caused some tough conversations and even ended a few friendships.

Opening It Up to the Community
To make the process more inclusive, Pageant Planet started requiring public profiles. By then, there were hundreds of thousands of users in the database—far more than the Pageant Planet staff could personally know. This was when a new rumor appeared: that you had to advertise to win.

Raising the Standards
Another challenge came when nominees hadn’t actually competed or directed in the year being judged. To fix this, eligibility rules were added:

• Experts needed to tag contestants they worked with that year.
• Directors had to list an active event.
• Contestants had to tag their pageant for that year.

Pageant Planet staff spent more than 40 hours a week for five weeks manually verifying every profile. We only reviewed the information available on the profiles. For example, if a pageant tagged only two contestants, we scored them as though only two contestants competed that year. We didn’t interject our own industry knowledge, review social media profiles, or consider advertising status.

Adding Judges
To bring even more fairness, previous Top 10 directors and experts were invited to serve as judges. Pageant Planet staff narrowed the nominees in each category down to a Top 20 based solely on profile information. We then passed the Top 20 list to the judges and allowed them to use their industry knowledge and the profiles to score.

Judges used a private portal and the “golf-score” system, where the lowest total won. Here’s an example of who judged what:

• Photographers judged Best Headshots
• Hair and Makeup Artists judged Best Hair
• Retailers judged Best Designers
• All categories scored Best Director

It worked well for a time—until a new challenge appeared.

The Bias Problem
Even well-intentioned judges had natural bias—geographical or personal. A judge from Ohio might favor an Ohio contestant or give a friend a better score while scoring their friend’s competitor lower. We began identifying these bias patterns, but some judges eventually learned to game the system, which led to the next evolution.

Full Transparency (Where We Are Now)
To make it completely fair, Pageant Planet made the system fully transparent. The goals were simple:

 1. Remove bias

 2. Make judging fully transparent

 3. Reward those who maintain accurate, complete profiles

Now, contestants, directors, and experts can nominate themselves or others for $1. This small fee verifies votes, prevents bots, and gives participants year-long visibility in the Pageant Planet directory at no additional cost. Each nominee also receives a badge for marketing and two exciting perks yet to be announced.

Participation is completely optional—but Best in Pageantry is now the most transparent award system in the industry. You can see, in real time, who’s leading and review their profiles to understand why.