Newly crowned Miss Teen Bermuda Islands Sah-Shay Johnstone hopes to make her anti-drug message loud and clear during her reign.

The 17-year-old CedarBridge Head Girl also hopes to encourage others like her to live the dream.

She said: "Drugs are destroying folks in our community. I am looking to voice my opinions on what is going on this Island such as with teen violence and drugs.

"But the youth play such an import role and can be whatever they want to be."

Her first official appearance is tomorrow night at Trimingham Brothers, who were the official wardrobe for the event which climaxed on Sunday at City Hall in front of Premier Alex Scott and a packed and enthusiastic audience.

Appearing more at ease than some of the contestants, her natural smile won the hearts of the judges but took some doing to keep up during Sunday's event which ran for over four hours.

"My face was aching from smiling after a while."

Weeks of preparation has been rewarded with a $1,000 prize, a watch from Crisson jewellers, a gift certificate and one year's hair care from Transformations.

Ms Johnstone also competed in the Teen talent contest at the same venue on Thursday night with her African Dance routine, supported by four drummers from the Bermuda African Dance Company.

That event was won by Tiffany Simons from Sandys North for a high-energy dance routine featuring 1970s classics and some more recent numbers.

She narrowly beat off strong competition from St. George's girl Alaina Nelson whose strong singing and dancing, complete with cane twirling and top hat tossing during a traditional show tune, crowned a memorable night.

Alaina came third in the overall competition while Sandy's South entrant Ashley Hawksworth, who also picked up the award for Miss Congeniality, came second.

Taking the Miss Photogenic Award was Miss Pembroke Tiara Simmons.

Terry Smith said the social platform element was a first for the contest and had led to articulate responses from the girls on topics of the day.

He said: "Some of them were quiet fluent, but I hope it doesn't scare off future contestants."

Gone this year was the swim suit section, although photos of the contestants in swimwear were shown on screen at the ceremony as were some amusing photos of the entrants as babies which drew "ayahs" from a vocal audience, which also enjoyed the section where contestants introduced the most significant male of their life.

This brought about some moving tributes about fathers as well as those who had played a similar role for those in single parent families. Among these unsung heroes was Government MP Nelson Bascome who was supporting Hamilton Parish's Casey Daniels.