Katherine won more than just the crown. She also won a place in history books. Not only was she the youngest contestant to make it to the famous pageant, at 15 years old, she is the youngest winner, ever. Hi, katherine. Hi, thank you for having me. Our pleasure. What was it like competing against 50 girls who were quite a bit older than you . Right, well, i see myself as a really mature 15yearold. So, i dont think my age really held me back from having the samexp as everyone else. I made so many friends, and i just had the time of my life. It was so much fun. Now, you grew up in a small town in louisiana. What was that like . I did. Well, living in a small town, i love living in a small town. You know everyone, they are so supportive, and when i won, they just went crazy. Theyre amazing. I love living there. You must be a pretty big celebrity around town. I would say so. You actually started i did. My sister actually played softball, and my dad wanted me to get involved. And i started playing at three, and it went from there. Im on my High School Softball team, and i just love doing it. What position do you play . Right, well, i did play first base, but im currently playing second base, but i move around. I have played everywhere. Are you better at hitting or fielding . I would say im its kind of equal. I did hit it an overthefence home run, last year. That was really exciting, so maybe hitting. Well, you certainly hit a home run with the miss teen usa pageant. What made you enter in the first place . Right, well, i did a lot of small pageants when i was younger, but this is actually my first really big one. I really entered pageants just to get the full experience that you get so many things out of doing pageants, like confidence and just the speaking skills and doing interviews like this. It will just help me through the rest of my life in jobs and different things. So, its definitely a really never been in a major pageant, what are some of the skills you need to master . Right, well, i think you really need to master just finding out who you are and being confident in who you are, because that really shows while you are on stage or doing an interview and just being yourself. That really helps in pageants. Speaking of pageants, before making it to the national competition, you have to win the state competition, and you had a nervous moment there, didnt you . I did. It was actually my first really big pageant where i had to answer an onstage question, and i just got stage fright and really nervous. So, i kind of blanked out at the moment. I didnt really answer the question really well. So, it kind of held me back, but in the end, the judges said that i did really well on my oneonone interview, so that really helped me win the pageant. But after that, i saw that thats what i really need to work on for the national pageant. So, it told me what i needed to work on, and at miss teen usa, i didnt bobble on the question, so all was good. You. You went on to win the title of Miss Louisiana teen usa and, ultimately, the title of miss teen usa 2015. When we return, well hear how katherines knowledge of history helped her win the talent competition. Teen kids news will be right back. Closed captioning is brought were talking with when one thinks of a talent competition, they think of dancing, singing or maybe playing an instrument, but you did something a bit different, didnt you . I did, and we actually dont have a talent portion in miss teen usa, but it was kind of a gettoknowyou question. We had to put three interesting facts on our bio, and they chose the one where i could sing all of the president s in order while singing a song, so i had to do it in front of the whole audience, and it was kind of cool to do it front of all of them. It was fun. How can i not ask you to show us . Okay. . Washington, adams, jefferson, madison . . Monroe, adams, jackson, buren . . Harrison, tyler, polk, and taylor . . Fillmore, pierce, buchanan . . Lincoln, johnson, grant, hayes, garfield . . Arthur, cleveland, harrison, cleveland . . Mckinley, roosevelt, taft, and wilson . . Harding, coolidge, hoover . . Franklin d. Roosevelt, harry s. Truman . . Dwight d. Eisenhower, john f. Kennedy . . Johnson, nixon, ford, carter, reagan . . Bush, clinton, bush, obama . Its a mouthful for sure. Impressive, and you didnt just recite the names, but you also asked the audience to clap along. It was kind of a way to get them involved, and the final question is kind of an intense point. So, i think it kind of broke up the mood and made everyone more relaxed. What gave you the idea to sing the president s song . Well, i actually learned how to do that in seventh grade. My history teacher used to bring his guitar to class to help us remember information, because its so much easier to remember it in a song. So, it was just something cool and fun that i remembered i could do, and it just made me stand out from the rest of the contestts stand out, you did. Whats it like to hear your name announced as the winner as miss teen usa . Its a very crazy moment, a very exciting and surreal moment for sure. I always dreamed of it, but i never really thought it would happen. A year ago today, i would have never imagined being in the final two and hearing my name called, so it was crazy, um, very exciting, and its been so much fun since then. If any of our viewers want to enter the miss teen usa you share . I would tell them to go for it. Dont let the fear of trying something new stop you from doing it because you never know. You could win and go really far from there. Its a great experience, and ive definitely learned a lot of things about myself and just, you know, being independent and learning so many skills from doing it. Terrific. Thanks for speaking with us, and congratulations thank you. For more information about miss teen usa pageants or competitions in your area, check out their website. Im amelia. There is nothing funny about being bullied, except maybe for this. Believe it or not, the word bully was originally a compliment. Back in the 16th century, it meant sweetheart. Not that im suggesting that if you are faced with a bully, that you should call him or her sweetheart, but it does make one wonder how things can get so turned around. Weve got to take a short break, but dont go away because teen kids news imagine a classroom without basic supplies to read and write. Unfortunately, there are many schools like that in poor countries around the world. You are about to meet an organization working to change that. These students in sri lanka are on their way to a special library. What makes it special would be surprising to us it has books. Room to read is an organization that is opening schools and libraries across the developing world for the poorest of the poor. Hundreds of schools, thousands of libraries so that every child everywhere is no longer denied an education because they were born in the wrong place at the wrong time. John wood is an amazing guy. He used to be a big executive at microsoft until he went on vacation in nepal. Thats when he saw the desperate need for books and libraries. He changed the course of his own life when i was growing up in pennsylvania, we had actually a book mobile that came to our town, and we think of this kind of as a nepalese yak mobile. We got our yak loaded with books, and we are about to head off to go to a secondary school here in jomsom to deliver about 500 books to help them start their first library. When john arrives with his yak mobile, just look at the reaction. Reading isnt just fun, its a way t to the world beyond their isolated community. What does suresh like . He likes ice cream. He likes ice cream. What do annie and unni like . What do annie and unni like . They like ice they like chicken curry. They like chicken curry. Do you like chicken curry . In nepal, children express gratitude with flowers and their traditional namaste. Namaste. There are also grateful children in africa, cambodia, india, and laos. Since it started, room to read has reached more than 1,600 schools and built 15,000 libraries libraries filled with books published in the local language. This is made possible by donations of all sizes, including help students throughout america have gotten very involved in room to read. We have a movement called students helping students. So students pick a goal, they pick a country, and we dont dictate to them, heres what you need to do. Heres how you need to do it. We say, here is the menu. You can decide. You decide on a project. You decide on a country. We will tell you how much its gonna cost, and then well report back to you on how the money was spent. It costs 30,000 for room to read to open a school. Thats a lot for teens to collect. Is gonna raise enough money to build a school, but if 20 or 30 or 50 or 100 students come together and make it a project, they are gonna do it together, and its gonna give them a great feeling of saying, when they hear about poverty, when they hear about global issues, they are gonna be able to say, you know what . I did something. By just raising 250, you can sponsor a scholarship for a girl. In many parts of the world, girls are not able to go to school. When you think about the fact that over 100 Million Girls in the developing world woke up this morning that to me screams opportunity. Its an opportunity to get out there and make positive change in the world and then say, no longer should we live in a world where any child, boy or girl, is denied education. If youre looking for a Great Service project, read my lips room to read. To find out how you can help, there is a link on our website. One way to tell if someone is a really good friend is not so much by what you say to each other but maybe by how little is someone you can spend time with and not feel you have to keep a conversation going. Of course, if you are both busy watching tv, surfing the web, or playing video games, that doesnt exactly count. Its time for another Important Message brought to you by the National Road safety foundation. [ car door closes ] [ engine starts ] oh oh, no [ clicks ] yeah [ clicking ] you may be surprised where experts say you should do some of your sdy ill have that story in make the grade, its time for make the grade. Heres christin. Things like noise and distractions aside, the experts say where you study can have an impact on how well you study. For reviewing major topics for a test, they recommend sitting at a desk or table. In fact, they say you should try to recreate, as much as possible, the setting where youll be taking the test. For simple memory tasks, such as flash cards or memorizing a poem. In bed, at least for some of the work. Research shows that it may be easier to memorize things before you go to sleep rather than in the morning. It seems the mind keeps on working overnight. By the way, if you think sleeping on your text books will help, it wont. Im christin, here to help you make the grade. Where was i . I never saw a moor, yet know i how the weather looks and what a billow be. Across the country, there are weird laws that havent been enforced for decades but are still on the books. For example, in one california town, its illegal to kiss unless both people doing the kissing first wipe their lips with carbonized when they came up with that . The oldest baseball stadium in continuous use is fenway park. Fenway park is located in the fenway district of boston, massachusetts, and is the home of the boston red sox. But why is the park called fenway park . Well, a fen is another word for a marsh, and before fenway park was built, the area was very marshy. But why they decided to build a baseball stadium over a marsh . Im not sure. Im matt with teen kids news. Most of us know that sugary drinks can be unhealthy. But sugar is not the only thing we need to be careful about. Daniella explains. When its time to focus, do you reach for a caffeinated drink, like soda, coffee, or tea . If you do, you could be reaching for trouble. Medical experts say caffeine is more than just a chemical compound. Its actually a moodaltering that means it gives you ups and downs, sort of like being on an unpleasant merrygoround ride. On the upside, caffeine can give you a shortterm energy boost, but here is the downside. Caffeine can also cause anxiety, the jitters, and trouble sleeping. And when it wears off, you can feel sluggish. Even worse, if you drink caffeine on a regular basis, your body begins to crave it. So when you dont get caffeine, you could have withdrawal symptoms, including headaches and difficty and thats not good for your schoolwork. So, whether its soda, coffee, or tea, go for decaf. You are under enough pressure from school as it is. Dont let caffeine make things even harder. Im daniella for teen kids news. A great way to eat your veggies. My recipe is next on teen kids news. Students from the Culinary Institute of america are sharing some of their Favorite Recipes with teen kids news. Today, we are going to make a dish thats great for lunchtime or anytime you want a healthy snack. My pasta and vegetable salad is easy to make and take with you on the go. Ill show you what you need. Ive picked out elbow macaroni. Im gonna use about half a box. Ive chopped two stalks of celery, one can of black sliced olives, and then ive diced one cucumber, one red bell pepper, one green bell pepper, and one half of a red onion. Im gonna finish it today with mozzarella cheese and grated parmesan. Lets start the pasta. Im gonna give this a nice stir. But you can use any pasta you would like, really. My favorite is elbow macaroni. While the pasta is cooking, ill show you how we are gonna make the italian dressing. Ive used 1 teaspoon of celery salt, 1 teaspoon of dried thyme, 1 teaspoon of dried oregano, and 1 teaspoon of parsley. I used fresh today because it was in the garden, gonna add 1 tablespoon of black pepper, 1 tablespoon of white sugar. 1 tablespoon of onion powder and 1 tablespoon of garlic powder. Im gonna mix all of those ingredients with 1 4 cup of cider vinegar. Now, im gonna add the 1 1 4 cup of extra virgin olive oil. You want to add it slowly so that it mixes together well. This pasta salad is great the next day after its been in the fridge to get nice and cold, all the flavors will come together, and its my favorite to take to school. Before school. Now that the dressings done, lets go check on that pasta. Its been cooking for about 7 to 10 minutes now. You should follow the directions on the box. They are always right. Our pasta is done. Now that the pasta is cooked, we can cool it. After you drain the pasta, you run cold water over it to cool it off quickly and to stop the cooking or the other way is just to drain it and allow it to cool naturally on the side. Lets add all our ingredients. Im gonna add the celery and then the onion. Next is the black olives and the green pepper. Going to add the cucumber and then im gonna mix it all together. Theres a lot of vegetables in here, and the good thing about them is that they are all raw, so all the nutrients, all the nutrition, and all the Health Benefits arent lost at all. Doesnt that look nice . Im not even finished yet. Im gonna add the cheese next. Little bit of mozzarella, you dont have to use all of it but just enough, as much as you would like. Of course you can add any cheese that you want, i like mozzarella with my pasta. You can add cheddar. Im using parmesan next, a little bit there. Give that another good mix. And sometimes, you might need a bigger bowl. We are gonna add the dressing next. Give it a good mix just to mix it all back together again. And again, you dont have to use all of this. This is the best thing to keep in the fridge. You can use it on your salads if your mom makes salad make more pasta salad. Im gonna use about 1 cup here. Now that its all mixed, i like to season. Seasoning to taste just means adding a little bit of salt and a little bit of pepper to make it taste better. Its up to you how much you add. I add a little bit of both. Lets taste. Mmm, delicious. Pasta and veggie recipe at the Culinary Institute of america. For teen kids news, im fletch. Wow that looks really good. You can find the full recipe on our website. Teen kids news will be back next week. You wont want to miss it. Bye for now. Write to us at [voiceover] coming up on about dogs small breeds. This breed is perfectly portable, this is just too much fun [voiceover] absolutely adorable, and known as the energizer bunny of dogs. Then, meet the pintsized pooch who made it all the way from south of the border, and into americas hearts. I dont think i want to live a day without him. Come on w small dogs have a history as illustrious as this perennially popular pet, whose name comes from the chinese word for lion. Theyre really fun, they have great personalities, theyre a little snuggle bug. And finally, its a little dog with a fancy name, i love my bundle of bichon. [voiceover] thats one of the happiest breeds of all. Theyre gregarious, funloving. Diamond in the rough