JASON WHIPPLE: Audiences tend to love the girls and maybe it’s the fact that they
are seeing something that they don’t normally see at pageants.
EVA WHIPPLE: I like to model and being on the stage and seeing everybody and everybody seeing me.
JESSA WHIPPLE: I, I like to do…
EVA WHIPPLE: Do you like to do beauty?
JESSA WHIPPLE: Yeah!
JASON WHIPPLE: We decided to adopt because we wanted to have children. For various reasons,
my injury primary among them, we couldn’t have children naturally. But we wanted to have a family.
JASON WHIPPLE: So we started looking for adoption.
COMM: Jacqueline and Jason Whipple have four adopted children: 9-year-olds, Corbin and
Ava and 4-year-olds, Jessa and Brady.
JASON WHIPPLE: Ava was, she was our only international adoption.
JASON WHIPPLE: She was at a very poor orphanage in Bulgaria.
JASON WHIPPLE: The first picture that we ever saw of her, I knew that this was our child.
And it took a lot of paperwork, a lot of prayer, almost two years. My wife made two trips to
Bulgaria. But she, she came into our lives and it’s been amazing.
JACQUELINE WHIPPLE: Jessa has Spina Bifida Myelomeningocele, which is the most complex
form of Spina Bifida. Her legs are completely paralysed because of it. So we knew that she
was going to be in a wheelchair from the start.
JACQUELINE WHIPPLE: Ava has Achondroplasia, which is the most common form of dwarfism.
JACQUELINE WHIPPLE: When I was in the process of bringing Ava home from Bulgaria, the only
thing I could do to feel connected to her was buy things for her to have when she got
home. So in the process, I started thinking about these pageantry dresses.
JACQUELINE WHIPPLE: And my husband was like, ‘You’re not putting our kids in pageants.
You’re just not.’
JASON WHIPPLE: I am going to be honest. When Jackie told me she wanted to get the girls
involved in pageants, I was not on board. I had seen all these shows, ‘Toddlers and
Tiaras,’ and heard all of the nightmare horror stories and I didn’t want that for
my girls. But I wanted Jackie to be happy and I wanted my girls to be happy. So I said,
‘Okay, one pageant.’ That one pageant has turned into I can’t even count how many pageants.
WOMAN: Please welcome to the stage contestant no. 17, Miss Ava Katherine Whipple.
WOMAN: She has beautiful brown eyes and brown hair.
WOMAN: Ava enjoys dance and going on vacation.
TONYA TAYLOR: I saw them first perform at one of my pageants and I thought that Ava,
of course, was just a firecracker and Jessa is a complete sweetheart.
EVA WHIPPLE: I have done a lot of pageants.
JACQUELINE WHIPPLE: We have been doing this for two years. I would say Jessa has done
maybe twenty-five or thirty pageants. Ava has probably done maybe fifteen.
JACQUELINE WHIPPLE: When we started pageants, Jessa didn’t talk at all. She was non-verbal;
she was doing speech therapy weekly. We didn’t know if she was ever going to talk.
We had hope but we didn’t know.
JACQUELINE WHIPPLE: Along the way, at pageants, she started talking to people, saying words, saying things.
JACQUELINE WHIPPLE: And, so, it kind of pulled it out of her. She talks to everybody, people
know her, people love her. It changed her perception of herself, I think.
WOMAN: Welcome to the stage contestant no.3, Miss Jessa Whipple.
WOMAN: Jessa is the 4-year-old daughter of Jason and Jacqueline Whipple. Jessa has blonde
hair and grey eyes. Jessa’s hobbies include pageants and being extra silly.
JASON WHIPPLE: The pageant has helped Ava as well in much the same way. Ava struggles
with self-esteem issues. She struggles with thinking that I am valuable. Obviously, we
know this came from her first three and a half years in orphanage. So, this has really
helped her find her value, her self-worth.
TONYA TAYLOR: Overall I feel like, the girls are just absolutely amazing. They are different
but you wouldn’t know that from them. And that was my biggest thing. I want them to
come but I want her to compete in the regular age groups. I am not going to make it a handicapped
age group just for your girls. They know they are different. So, why not let them meet friends
and compete with the best of the best. They hold their own, I can assure you of that.
WOMAN: Miss Jessa is the winner of our Spam Supreme.
WOMAN: And she gets the custom happy birthday crown.
JASON WHIPPLE: Audiences tend to love the girls.
JACQUELINE WHIPPLE: Which is exactly what we wanted. So we are succeeding in our goal
because we wanted to change the face of beauty and change people’s perception.
EVA WHIPPLE: I don’t think my disabilities are affecting the pageant.
JASON WHIPPLE: It’s just amazing to watch them perform and just my heart swells with pride.
JACQUELINE WHIPPLE: I love watching them on stage. I love watching them succeed. I love
watching them be proud of themselves. I think that’s the biggest thing.
JASON WHIPPLE: With Jessa, it’s really helped her come out of her shell and become silly
and express herself better. And with Ava, it’s helped her to find her inner voice that says, ‘I matter!’