Metro Detroit mother-daughter duo both win beauty pageant, move onto national competition
(CBS DETROIT) - A Trenton mother-daughter combo is heading to the national championship round after being declared winners of the United International Queens Pageant for 2023-2024.
"She has an amazing stage presence," says Janet Sides, praising her daughter, Amy Douglas.
"I'm a singer," smiled Douglas while speaking with CBS News Detroit. "I listen to music all the time."
Whether it's music or any reason to dance and strike a pose, Amy is on it. She's been competing in pageants since 2020, and most recently, she took home a victory at the UIE Queens, punching her ticket to the national competition in Georgia in late June.
"There has not been anything that she hasn't put her mind to that she hasn't achieved," Sides said.
Douglas' victory comes with a little extra, though.
Her mother, not by choice initially, ended up not only competing in the pageant herself but also winning in her category.
"They told me I could not go backstage to help her because you had to be a contender to go backstage," Sides said. "So they said the only way you could do it is if you sign up. I looked at Amy, and I said, 'Well, do you want me to?' And she said, 'Well, I want my privacy,' but she wanted me to sign up so I could help her," Sides said.
With no expectations of a victory and participating as a way to help out her daughter, the unthinkable, in Side's mind, happened.
"I never thought we would both title," said Sides.
Just like that, a mother-daughter duo both punched their ticket to Georgia.
"My mom got nervous," Douglas said.
"We need a lot more Amy's in the world because she has no fear," Sides said about her daughter.
