PRETTY AMAZING: MTV, Seventeen Spotlight 5 Inspiring Young Women

MTV and Seventeen Magazine are partnering up to present the first televised special for Seventeen’s Pretty Amazing contest, featuring five young women who are following their dreams and making a difference. Earlier this year Seventeen challenged readers nationwide to tell their amazing stories of why they deserve to be the first reader featured on a cover of Seventeen Magazine.

Seventeen Magazine chose five girls out of 35,000 entries to fly to New York City to compete for a once-in-a lifetime opportunity, to compete and ultimately be named Seventeen’s “Pretty Amazing” October cover girl. The celebrity judges, Ann Shoket (Editor-in-Chief of Seventeen magazine), Miranda Cosgrove (Nickelodeon’s iCarly), and Jared Eng (founder of justjared.com) evaluated the girls based on their charisma, poise, unique and moving stories and how they represented the Seventeen brand.

The five amazing finalists include Zoe who overcame poverty to turn her passion for fashion into a successful clothing line by the age of 19; Shannon the 21-year-old speed queen who races on the INDYCAR USF2000 Series; 17-year-old Lauren who turned depression into inspiration and now makes documentaries about issues teens face; Ann whose fashion photography has been featured on major sites and earned her a showing at a gallery at age 16; and Nina who has been speaking out against cyberbullying since the 6th grade and continues her campaign as Junior Miss New Jersey.

The Pretty Amazing special airs Tuesday, August 30 at 8/7c on MTV.