NYC's Brighton Beach grandmother beauty pageant celebrates its 25th year – CBS News

NYC’s Brighton Beach grandmother beauty pageant celebrates its 25th year  CBS News

The annual pageant brings grandmothers together for a day of elaborate costumes, performances and friendly competition. One 89-year-old Holocaust survivor is preparing to return to the stage. At 89, Mara Goldshtein has the shoes, the sparkle and the stage presence of a beauty queen. The Holocaust survivor is a three-time crown holder in the Your Highness Grandmother Beauty Pageant, an annual Brighton Beach, New York City, tradition that celebrates grandmothers through elaborate costumes, performances and a jury made up of grandfathers. "You feel alive. You don't feel that you are already very old," she told Brooklyn reporter Hannah Kliger. "I am very happy that I can do something." Goldshtein was a child during World War II and has vivid memories of fleeing the Nazis from her homeland in Moldova.

"Many people died on the barge and they threw them in the Caspian Sea," she said. Despite the trauma of her childhood, Goldshtein has remained active throughout her life. She spent decades working as a home attendant before retiring two years ago and is also a graduate of the NYPD's Citizens Police Academy. Her preparation for the pageant includes trying on the elaborate Firebird costume she wore when she won last year, along with a second look featuring a flower crown and traditional Moldovan dress. "I told them, I think I