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Oriya teenager is junior Ms Teen America
Thirteen-year-old Natasha Mohapatra won the Junior Miss Teen America pageant recently.
A teenaged girl has made this bustling south Orissa town proud by winning the Junior Miss Teen America pageant recently.
Thirteen-year-old Natasha Mohapatra, whose parents hail from this town, is now a student of standard eight at Forest Ridge school, Seattle.
"I am happy to win this crown which I did not expect," Natasha, who won the pageant, held at Connecticut on October 9, said over phone from Seattle.
"When I grow up I aim to become a paediatrician. I want to work for children and provide shelter for the homeless old people," she said.
A fan of Bollywood star Preity Zinta, she is a student of Odissi and Bharat Natyam and regularly participates in many cultural programmes in the US.
Natasha said though she lived in the US, her heart was in Orissa, which she loved.
Her father Nilamadhab Mohapatra, a graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology, had migrated to the US in 1988 and joined Microsoft there. He has two daughters, the elder being Sibani (16).
"Natasha has been a good student and showed interest in outdoor activities from a young age .... Though we stay far away from home, we observe all festivals of the Oriya calendar," he said.
