Of course the real question would be 'How did a boy of fourteen (and genetically Veronica is a boy) come to be a beauty pageant contestants. It might have all begun several years before she was born. (And yes Veronica is a 'she.)
Her mother grew up in a small town south of Spokane by the name of Rosalia. This small farming community would also be the Veronica's hometown for the first six years of her life. As a young girl, Anne Grover had aspiration of pursuing a career in theater. Singing and more importantly dancing was her passion. In high school, she had leading roles in the annual held musicals. When she left Rosalia to attend Eastern Washington University, she majored in theater and gained some local fame as a performer in performances at Spokane Civic Theatre. But her dream never took off as planned. She married her high school sweetheart, settled down in Rosalia and resigned herself to a rather ordinary life.
She had not however entirely given up on her dreams. She continued to perform in Spokane and started up a dance studio where she taught young girls mostly but some boys how to dance. More importantly to this story, she had dreams of having a daughter. She would teach her how to sing and dance and act and hopefully one day the dreams she could not realize on her own would be achieved by her daughter.
Her husband wanted a big family with a balance blend of a couple of boys and a couple of girls. However he knew how much his wife wanted a daughter so like her he wanted their first child to be a girl, a daughter for his wife. It was not to be. The oldest was to be a son according to the ultrasound. While disappointed, both husband and wife simply conceded that it had always been their plan to have a big family. However, there were complications during birth and Mom came out of the delivery room unable to have any more children. She sank into a depression that built a wall between herself and her husband.
While she would never share the whole truth with her son Glen, often when her husband was at work, Anne would dress up her little boy as a girl. Often times when friends or family were over, Glen would also hear stories of how both his Mom and Dad had really wanted him to be a girl. 'Anne had really wanted to have a daughter,' he would hear his dad say. By the time Glen was four or five, he found dressing as a girl much more to his likely than dressing as a boy. Often he would ask his Mom if he could put on a dress. His mom usually allowed him to do so and would smile broadly seeing 'her little girl' a few minutes later.
At the age of six, within months of each other, Anne lost both her husband and her grandfather. Her husband died in a car crash and she received large insurance settlements from the car manufacturer due to faulty equipment and from the other driver's insurance company. A few month later, her grandfather passed. In the sixties and seventies he had been a screenwriter for a slew of popular sitcoms and had been living off of a substantial residual income that now was bequeath to Anne. Her dance studio was in Spokane so she sold their home and moved herself and her son to Spokane.
Spokane had become Glen's favorite city. Over the last couple of years, it had become common for him to travel to Spokane with his Mom and when they did so she always went as a girl, as Veronica. On the first day in their new home, a day Glen spent as Veronica, he asked her, "Now that were living in Spokane, do I get to be Veronica all the time?" Spokane had become the place he could be her.
While Mom initially said that it was 'simply not possible,' the next day she sat down with Veronica and suggested a different option. She had decided to homeschool Veronica, but she stressed to Veronica that when she was older, she would have to go to public school -- as a boy. At the age of six, Veronica was not concerned with someday. So for the next four years of her life, Veronica was a full-time girl -- with just a few exceptions.
Quite by accident one day, while out shopping, Mom was approached by the salesclerk of a department store at Northtown Mall. "We need some models for our fashion show today and would love to have your daughter model an outfit." Within a few months Veronica was entering her first beauty pageant. And that is how it came to be that she became a frequent contestant in beauty pageants. Within a few years she had become such a recognizable face at these pageants that it simply did not occur to anyone that she might not be a real girl.
Everything might have gone on as it was for Veronica and her mom except that Mom finally found herself dating again. While it was very casual at first, she started to envision a different future for herself and in that future it was difficult to fit Veronica into the picture. She could not see herself getting serious with a man without being honest about Veronica and she had doubts about the willingness of any man to fully accept both herself and her daughter once he knew the truth. So she approached Veronica with a reminder of their original plan. It was time for Veronica to begin public school -- as a boy.
While Glen would be attending school as a boy, that did not mean that all was lost for Veronica. She would still be entering beauty pageants and mother and daughter would still frequently go out together for lunch or a movie. Things had changed, but both Mom and Veronica knew there was no going back for Veronica. This was an acceptable option for Veronica. She wanted her Mom to be happy and she knew that Veronica would not make it easy for Mom to find possibly a new husband.
Which brings us to the last beauty pageant that opened this overview. While there are many details omitted here as this is just an overview, this introduction brings you up to date with the life of Veronica up to the start of her high school years. My purpose has been to place her life in some context. To learn more, one simply needs to check out the blog posts.
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