NATCHEZ — Peeking up over the stage as a little girl, Whestley Shirley admired the sparkling gowns and perfectly manicured nails of Miss Vidalia pageant participants.

“Ever since I was a little girl, I knew I wanted to be in the pageant and knew everything from what color dress I would wear to what color fingernail polish I wanted,” the Vidalia High School senior said, laughing.

But she straightens up and a serious look comes across her face when she talks about the true purpose of Miss Vidalia.

“Now that I’m older, I know it’s not about the beautiful dress, or your nails, or even the crown,” Shirley, 17, said. “It’s about being a role model.”

The Vidalia Women’s Club named Shirley Miss Vidalia 2014 this week after the club discovered scores calculated at the pageant were inaccurate because of an “unauthorized addition” to the scoring categories.

“Even if it’s not under the best circumstances, it’s still a tremendous honor,” Shirley said.

The serious look on Shirley’s face fades as she recounts using her sense of humor to answer a question that took her by surprise during her interview with the judges that happened before the actual pageant.

“They asked me if I could change one thing about myself, what would it be?” Shirley said. “It caught me off guard, so I just said, ‘Well, why would God give me one dimple on my face and not the other?’

“They thought that was so funny. I went in there, and I didn’t know how they were going to react or if I was going to be serious or funny, so I was just myself.”

“Be yourself, and love yourself” is a message Shirley wants to use her Miss Vidalia title to promote.

“Don’t try to live up to other people’s standards,” Shirley said. “A bunch of teenagers at my school are trying to do stuff to fit in, and I just tell them ‘Be yourself.’ You’ll get a lot farther in life, and people will respect you more.”

Shirley also wants to use her Miss Vidalia platform to work with school administrators to implement a stricter policy against bullying. With the prevalence of social media, Shirley says many teens deal with the psychological effects of cyberbullying as well as traditional bullying.

Shirley said she would also like to work with the City of Vidalia to find a building local teens could use for recreation or as a safe gathering place.

“It would be a place they could go to instead of going and partying and drinking,” she said. “It would give them a place where they weren’t persuaded by alcohol and peer pressure.”

Establishing a purity group for teens is also another goal of Shirley’s during her reign as Miss Vidalia. “Everything I do, it points back to God,” she said.

Most of all, Shirley wants to be a role model.

“I think I could change the way girls sometimes view themselves (negatively),” she said. “I believe I could set that example for girls, and even boys too.”

Shirley is a cheerleader at Vidalia High School and is also a member of Beta Club, student council, Ignite, secretary of her class. Shirley is also a member of Key Club, through which she volunteers her time deliver meals to those in need, picking up litter and other activities.

She is a member of First Baptist Church of Vidalia.

Shirley was recently accepted to Louisiana State University of Alexandria, where she plans to study counseling.

Shirley is the daughter of Whest and Dara Shirley and Christi and Claude Rabb.

A reception honoring Shirley and all the Miss Vidalia 2014 contestants will be next month.