GUILDERLAND — High school junior Jessie Doyle decided to enter the 2010 Miss Junior Teen Albany pageant on a whim.

“Honestly, I was just shocked,” Doyle said of her win. She was crowned Miss Junior Teen Albany on Sept. 11, after she beat out 45 other girls for the title.

Doyle said she received a letter in late August, describing the pageant and inviting her to attend an information session at a local hotel.

“The woman at the session really raved about the pageant, and I got really excited, so I decided to have an interview,” she said. A week later, she got the notification that she had been accepted as a participant in the pageant.

“It was so nice and it felt really good to get in,” said Doyle. In order to complete her entry, she had to raise $500 from local sponsors, so she went to local businesses to ask for their donations. She received sponsorship from Classica Florist and Gifts, New Look Hair Salon, Marshall L. Price, D.D.S., and Charlie Ellis, from Sportime.

In the three weeks between the initial interview and the pageant, Doyle attended a training session to learn how to walk on stage, and find out what to wear.

“I do a lot of musicals so I am pretty comfortable on stage. My parents said I had good stage presence,” she said.  She wore her prom dress for the formal wear category, and she bought a business suit for the personal interviews.

“For the casual wear category, you just had to wear what you would on a normal day, so I threw together my outfit with my black boots — I just love my black boots,” said Doyle.

The Guilderland High School junior said this was her very first pageant, but she is no stranger to extracurricular activities.

“I really do way too many activities,” she said. Doyle is the co-captain of the junior-varsity tennis team at the high school, a sports anchor for the school’s television news, and she sings in the women’s chamber choir and concert choir. Outside of school, she is the assistant coach of a recreational soccer team for kindergartners, takes private singing lessons, and plays tennis at Sportime.

“I just thought the pageant would be something fun, and I had nothing to lose,” Doyle said. She said she never expected to win.

“At the end, when they were calling the runners-up, I was just looking at all these drop-dead gorgeous girls in their beautiful gowns. I was waiting for them to call the winner’s name, and when they said my name, I was in shock and kind of started crying,” she said.

Her mother, Leslie Doyle, said her daughter’s win was a big surprise.

“It was a big event for us, especially because she had never even entered a pageant before,” said Mrs. Doyle.

“My friends were really supportive and committed too,” Jessie Doyle said. Her two best friends ran up onto the stage after she was announced the winner, and shed some happy tears for her.

“My birthday was about a week after the competition and I wore my crown to school. A lot of people commented on it, and so many people commented about my win on Facebook,” she said.

Doyle will now compete in the Cities of America National Competition in December 2011. The national pageant is held in Orlando, Fla., and all of Doyle’s expenses will be paid. The winner of the national competition is awarded a scholarship, a car, and a cruise.

“I’ll probably just wait until next summer to start preparing for that pageant,” concluded Doyle. “I just have way too many activities!”