La Center 'Swan' advances to pageant
Tuesday, November 9, 2004 7:36 AM PST
By Pat Forgey
Printable version
E-mail this articleErica Moore blossomed into the Swan on Monday evening, and advanced into the Swan pageant.
The daughter of Kelso's Scott Harlin, Moore saw herself in a mirror for the first time during the evening's broadcast of the Fox reality show, after months of grueling transformation that included plastic surgery, diet and counseling.
"Oh my God, I'm beautiful," she said.
Moore, who grew up in La Center, Wash., with adoptive parents and attended Lower Columbia College, said she'd always been a "big girl," weighing as much as 240 pounds. A slimmed-down Moore, competed with a woman from Silverdale, Wash., to advance in the Swan pageant and the chance to win a modeling contract.
To get there, Moore had a brow lift, a chin implant, a face lift, liposuction and a nose job, teeth bleaching and veneers. And that was just on her face.
Elsewhere she had a tummy tuck, liposuction in four more areas and breast augmentation.
She said she liked what she saw in the mirror. "They're so perky," she said of her new bustline.
The biggest transformation may have been mental, however. When she was heavy she said she "had no confidence."
"My personality shines through, but on the inside I'm dying," she said.
Her therapist praised her attitude transformation as well, and Moore said the Swan training had been good for her.
"I think I have done a lot of growing up," she said.
Harlin gathered with family members to watch the broadcast Monday night, and praised the effort his daughter put into the Swan effort.
"It may not seem like much to most people, but it's pretty exciting to us," he said.
The family had purposely avoided finding out the results of the night's competition so they could watch it as a family, even though it was broadcast live on the East Coast three hours earlier.
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