She’s intelligent. She’s gorgeous. She’s Miss Rhode Island Teen USA 2012 and her name is Livia Stencel.

But don’t call her a beauty queen.

“A lot of people have a certain image of girls who are in beauty pageants; they think it’s all about who the prettiest girl is and who looks the best, but it’s really not about that,” said Stencel, 17, who just graduated from Warwick Veterans Memorial High School, where she was a member of the volleyball and swim team. “You have to have personality, character and poise. When you compete in bathing suit and evening gown, it’s more about the way you present and carry yourself.”

Stencel, a straight-A student who maintained a 4.0 grade point average through her senior year, was crowned Sept. 18 at the Rhode Island Center for Performing Arts in Cranston and will represent the Ocean State in the national Miss Teen USA 2012 pageant, which is scheduled for July 28 at Atlantis Paradise Island resort in the Bahamas.

The event will be aired live on U-Stream, which can be accessed via the Internet by visiting ustream.tv and typing “Miss. Teen USA” into the search key.

Aside from the swimsuit and gown competitions, Stencel said, a portion of the pageant will involve a series of interviews led by a panel of judges.

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For more photos of Livia visit her profile.