SPARTANBURG -- After winning both the talent and the physical fitness competitions last week, Miss Upstate Lindley Mayer was crowned Miss South Carolina Teen Friday, July 1, in Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium. Mayer, 16, of Greenville's J.L. Mann Academy, had a platform which she call LADY Bugs Across America, with LADY an acronym for "Lindley's Alliance for Disabled Youth." Because she has a severely disabled brother and sister, Mayer said she had witnessed firsthand the challenges that handicaps present to the disabled, their families and friends. To raise awareness and funds for the Children's Miracle Network and the Greenville Children's Hospital, she sold her own handmade ladybugs.

Mayer, who has modeled regionally and nationally and acted in a number of films, has studied dance for 13 years and won the talent competition for tapping to "Hound Dog."

This year for the first time, the winner of the Miss South Carolina Teen Competition will compete on the national level in Miss America's Outstanding Teen Aug. 17-20, 2005, in Orlando, Fla., under the aegis of the Miss America Organization.

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