Watch Mara Powers for a moment and be taken by her poise and confidence.

She sits delicately, and uses her hands as graceful emphasis to her conversations. She chooses her words carefully and sighs slightly before releasing them to others.

At eight years of age, Mara carries the confidence of a pageant pro poised beyond her years. This was evident when the Whidbey News-Times sat down with Mara shortly after a pageant win this spring.

Her outfit was selected carefully for this day: a flowing white and blue Sunday dress. She was on top of her game. But a look at her feet brings all this pageantry into check — she’s wearing fuzzy monkey slippers.

It’s a style move as versatile as her personality — serious, silly, and even a little dramatic at times.

Today and Sunday, Mara will put that personality in the spotlight as she competes against other young women at the Sunburst Tri-State Pageant in Butte, Mont.

Mara earned her competition ticket after winning the 7- to 10-year-old division preliminary pageant held Feb. 10 in Burlington.

Entering pageants was inevitable for Mara.

“I’d always pretended to be in pageants with my friends,” she said.

But Mara yearned for more than the contests in which Mom judged and everyone always seemed to win.

“I really wanted to be in a real pageant,” Mara said. “I like seeing everyone and what they’re wearing.”

She also enjoys all the different personalities blending and the possibilities of new friendships.

“I’ve met a lot of great people,” she said.

Mara’s task at the February pageant was simple: walk out to center stage, smile, give a spin, and face the judges to tell them all about herself.

It was a short speech that she can recite, very poetically, to this day.

“She was much more prepared than the other girls,” said her grandpa, Norm Haveman. “She wasn’t upset or nervous at all.”

After the judges deliberated it was time to announce the winner. As soon as she heard the second contestant was the first runner-up, Mara knew. She had won.

“It felt really cool,” Mara said.

The Tri-State competition will be her fourth pageant. It is a three-day event that began yesterday with a contestant social and modeling competition.

Mara has selected to compete in swimwear, talent, ‘50s wear, and composite. While there is no evening gown competition, everyone does wear a nice church dress. Girls can choose to enter individual contests or just go for the overall title. Mara will also vie for best smile, prettiest hair and prettiest eyes.

Mara’s bright blue eyes and gorgeously gap-toothed smile won her the titles of Prettiest Eyes and Prettiest Smile at the preliminaries.

Mara first entered a pageant in 2005 at the age of six. It was the local level of the National American Miss Pageant where she placed in the top ten.

“I really enjoyed it,” she said.

Mara is a Whidbey girl through and through.

She was born at Whidbey General Hospital and lives in Oak Harbor with her parents, Steve and River Powers, as well as two older brothers, Dakota and Caley. Her grandparents are Norm and Gerry Haveman of Oak Harbor.

Mara and her brothers are homeschooled which helps give them flexibility with their activity filled lives.

Mara is an aspiring ballerina who looks toward maybe being a ballet teacher some day.

“Ballet is very relaxing and graceful,” Mara said.

This four-year veteran trains three days a week at the Ballet Slipper. She and the other Ballet Slipper dancers are preparing to stage “Beauty and the Beast” June 2 and 3.

Mara loves to sing. You can often find her belting her heart out and strumming her guitar in her bedroom.

Don’t think everything is all frilly for Mara. This girly girl is also a fiercely competitive athlete. She’s been swimming since she was 6 years old, and now she’s an active member of the North Whidbey Aquatic Club. She lives for the IM, the individual medley, that requires swimmers to swim equal distances of each stroke — adding up to 100 meters.

In fact, the day of the preliminary pageant Mara also swam multiple events in a swim meet, including a 500-yard freestyle race. Moments after she ended her final 1 p.m. event she raced from the meet in Mukilteo to the pageant held that evening in Burlington.

“They’re all pretty active,” River Powers said of her children.

At the same time, this young lady couldn’t be more content than to do nothing.

“Mara enjoys being alone,” River Powers said. “She needs her quiet time.”

But don’t expect too many quiet days to come soon, Mara’s just getting started.