Elizabeth "Emy" Emerson Hancock '00

In June 1998, she won the title of Miss Massachusetts. Three months later she found herself in Atlantic City, representing the state in the Miss America Pageant.

Perhaps most recognizable for her 8 by 10 glossy on the wall in Pinocchio's, Emy Hancock looks back on her reign as Miss Massachusetts with fond memories and an understanding of the pressures and challenges of life in the spotlight.

"After you do something like that, people will always view you differently," the petite former cheerleader explains. "I think it toughened me up a bit but also made me more cynical about people." While touring around Massachusetts as part of the title-holder's requisite duties, Hancock drew substantial criticism for being a "Hillary Clinton-like" carpetbagger.

Hancock hails from Lexington, Ky., where her mother was first-runner up in the Miss Kentucky pageant years ago, and where Hancock herself won the Kentucky Junior Miss scholarship award in 1995.

"The watchword for the 1990s is diversity," she reasons. "I'm not from here, but I wanted to represent Massachusetts. I live here now, and it's a place I've grown to love."