This Teen Got the Prom Makeover of Your Dreams
Can you imagine if your prom experience made you feel like a celeb on the red carpet?
Senior Kati Owens got exactly that-and more!-as the winner of Seventeen and TLC's Say Yes to the Prom contest. The Big Rapids, MI native was flown to NYC for a Say Yes to the Prom event, where she and other students got to select from more than 2,000 dresses to find a complete prom outfit (including shoes and accessories), full hair and makeup styling, and one-on-one fashion advice from Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta's Monte Durham. At the end of the day, all of the participants strutted their stuff on the catwalk.
"I feel like I'm going to wake up any second," Kati told Seventeen at the event. "It's like a dream come true."
That's the goal of Say Yes to the Prom, which rewards deserving high schoolers who are making a difference in the world. Kati's winning (and inspirational) essay focused on how she's taken care of her family since she was little and her work on mission trips around the world. The valedictorian never even planned on entering the contest, but saw a commercial for it one day when she was sick and watching a marathon of Say Yes to the Dress. She figured she had nothing to lose.
"If you decide that something is impossible before you try, then it most definitely isn't possible-you shouldn't limit yourself just because you don't think you're going to succeed," she says. "I went for it and did my very best. I was vulnerable with what I wrote and told the truth and it paid off."
Kati will rock her new look at her prom (taking place at a castle near her school!) this spring, which she's attending with a big group of friends. She's gone twice before, so what's her best advice for the night?
"Don't go in with any expectations of what a perfect prom is, because unexpected things happen-you never know who's going to ask you to dance or what songs they're gonna play," she says. "So if you go in with expectations, it might not meet them... but it could be better than anything you could have imagined. Just have fun!"
Click here to learn more about Kati's story-and be sure to check out the 2017 Say Yes to the Prom special when it premieres Saturday, April 1st at 8/7c on TLC!
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