If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again. This worked for Kendall Powell.

Although she didn’t win the Miss Montana Teen USA title in 2003, she really enjoyed the whole experience, which wasn’t what she expected. “I thought the girls were going to be catty and just really mean to each other,” Powell said. Instead, she had so much fun she returned the following year.

“The nice thing about Kendall is that she just has the best attitude. Everything rolls off her back; nothing fazes her,” said Carol Hirata, director of the Miss Teen USA pageants for Montana and Colorado.

So Powell came back and captured the crown on Sept. 2, 2004, winning in the Treasure State, where over 90 percent of the population is white. Powell, who has lived in Montana since her adoptive parents flew to South Korea to pick her up when she was 4 months old, is the first person of color to represent the state in the national competition.

The 17-year-old took the stage at the Miss Teen USA finals in Baton Rouge, La., last month on Aug. 8.

“I had never been that far down south before. It was an awesome experience to see a different way of life from up here in Montana,” she said.

Powell failed to advance in that pageant, but the past year as Miss Montana Teen USA has kept her so extremely busy that the memories should never be in short supply — like the “Penguin Plunge,” a fundraiser for the Special Olympics. All she had to do was to have people watch her jump into an ice-cold lake in the town of Whitefish wearing only a bathing suit. Keep in mind that the lake was frozen over with ice, and they cut a hole in it just for her. “It was freezing, but they had people standing by to get you out, and you went straight into a hot tub. It was quite a rush,” Powell said.

Her reign will have come to an end on Sept. 4. Powell will then focus on her final year of high school, and get ready to go off to college and explore the world.