As the St. Clair County Junior Miss scholarship program approaches, “Has Been” winners of the past come back to participate in the event on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. in the Springville Middle School Auditorium. Leah Faith Knotts, a Moody High School alum who won St. Clair County’s Jr. Miss in 2001, will return to sing for the program.

Knotts, a Christian music artist, said she tries to help with junior miss whenever she can because she enjoyed the experience.

“I learned a lot about myself,” she said. “I became more confident. You learn you can do a lot more than you thought.”

She urges the contestants to be themselves and take advice from those helping them, whether on personal beauty tips or interview skills. She said this program focuses on “being your best self,” not only on beauty.

“Just be yourself and shine,” she said. “It’s what’s inside that really matters.”

She said this experience makes the contestants mature, and people will be shocked to see how talented and prepared the girls are for the program. She said the girls will also form lasting friendships with each other: “It becomes like a family.”

Although a singer now, Knotts, 27, had different plans for her life when she was in junior miss. After high school, she went to the University of Alabama and graduated with a communications degree. She began working at 93.7 WDJC after graduation and started praying and asking God what to do with her life. Knotts said she was surprised with the answer she received: She was going to sing.

“I thought I was going to be a career woman,” Knotts said.

Knotts, who did not think she was a good singer, sang for the first time in front of her class in high school when she was 16. She left people saying, “Where did that come from?”, and she said her voice just bloomed from that point. However, she did not get back to singing until after college.

One album later, she has performed as far away as Houston, Texas, and her music is heard in places around the world, like the Ukraine and Germany. She will go to Africa at the end of the year to sing at a women’s conference.

“I dream of singing in front of people and leading them in a musical experience that amazes them at what God is doing,” she said. “I want them to see something different in me.”

Knotts also volunteers as a counselor and mentor for girls at Sav-A-Life and Chalkville Girls Detention Center when she is not working part time at Covenant Bank in Leeds. “I really enjoy what I do. It gets me out of my comfort zone.”

She will sing “Redeemer” by Nicole C. Mullen at the program Saturday. Tickets for Jr. Miss are $10 at the door. For more information, visit www.ajm.org or call 640-3078.