‘See’ Success, Ex-Beauty Queen Advises

As a high school student, Simone Stephens was so shy that she gave an entire presentation at a speech competition without once looking up at the audience.

“I was scared to death,” Stephens said. “I couldn’t stand anyone to look at me for more than five minutes.”

Stephens later overcame that shyness to become the first black Miss California in 1987. And on Thursday she returned to her alma mater, Cal State Dominguez Hills, to help creative arts students overcome their own obstacles to success as performers.

“You may never be the performer you want to be unless you have direction,” Stephens told the high school students in Cal State’s Creative Arts Summer Day Camp. “I always have a picture in my mind of what I want.”

As an example, Stephens described how the run-down car she drove when she was a Cal State communications major literally fell apart in the school’s parking lot when “two of the wheels went one way and two went the other.”

A new car was one of the prizes in the Miss California pageant, so Stephens, desperate for transportation, entered the contest. To help visualize her goal, she pasted her own photograph over one of Miss California 1986. She won the crown.

With her reign as Miss California over, Stephens is dividing her time between giving motivational speeches and pursuing a career as a stand-up comedian and television writer.

Stephens, 26, grew up in South-Central Los Angeles, where she often used her sense of humor to ease out of spats with classmates. When she was 13, her family moved to Cerritos, where she attended Gahr High School.

To overcome her shyness, Stephens relied on self-discipline, forcing herself to return to speech competitions again and again.

Before her Cal State speech, Stephens said her aim was to couch serious professional advice in humorous terms.

“I have a gift for being funny and for being able to speak very easily in front of a crowd,” Stephens said. “If I can combine those two talents and go back into the community to show kids this is how you become successful, then maybe we can make some significant inroads into unraveling a real knot in society, like gangs and drugs and apathy to school.”

The 32 students in Stephens’ audience Thursday--many of them from the inner city--are aspiring actors, dancers and musicians. The weeklong educational program, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary, is dedicated this summer to Paul Robeson, the late singer, actor and political activist.

Mugging as she poked fun at her early attempts at success, Stephens had the students laughing even as she got them thinking about how to pursue their aspirations.

Now that her reign has ended, Stephens said she plans to study writing and work on her stand-up routine, which she has already performed at the Comedy Store and the Improv, both in Hollywood.

But more important, Stephens said, she plans to continue speaking without pay to groups of inner-city children. She has worked with such groups since her internship as an outreach coordinator with the city of Lawndale.

“These are kids raised in the TV age, who are used to seeing something funny every seven minutes” on television, Stephens said. “Humor holds their attention and makes it easier to digest a more serious message.”

Stephens’ message to the students was to define their goals, have a “blueprint” for success and muster the determination to see their goals through.

Apparently, the message got through.

Drama student Nakia Jacques, 14, was impressed with meeting the former Miss California, “someone who knows what it’s like and, being a comedian and all, can put things in a way you can understand.”

The speech “reinforced a lot of the values and principles my parents have already taught me,” said Laurel Woodward, 16. “I have a lot more confidence in what I’m doing.”