She's a beauty queen planning a career shift – a drastic one.
Larissa Allen is setting aside the tiara, the red carpet catwalk, the glitz, judging panels and TV cameras for a stab vest and handcuffs.
'I want to get into the police force,” she declares.
This could easily have been a story about the exploitation and sexualisation of women. Because the apologists and the radical feminists have been bitching, biting and scratching about the relevance of beauty pageants since the 1960s.
But nothing's changed. Nearly 60 years later, here we are watching the ‘Miss Universe New Zealand' contest live on national television and Larissa is up there on the podium at a packed Sky City Theatre with her long blond tresses, stunning gown and melting the critics and cynics with her smile and getting a sash for third.
'I want to get into the police force to work alongside their child abuse and domestic violence team. That's the area I want to get into.”
The double major in public relations and marketing from Waikato University artfully steers the chat back in the direction of her choice.
'The police force is not such a radical change for me because I'm quite multi-faceted. I do a lot of different things; I have my fingers in lots of pies.”
Larissa certainly has. She works in marketing and event management, a businesswoman with a business-like handshake, she's on the board for 16th Ave Theatre, she's an actress, mentors young people, is a board member for The Incubator arts collective and a Rotarian.
'The Police will be a tough job but I am ready for it.” That's because for someone of 25 she's had quite a lot of life experience. 'I've had knocks and I've come out of them. When I was eight I had a brush with child abuse by a stranger.”
A year later that incident prompted her to write a school speech. But it was never delivered. 'The school said it was too adult.” It was delivered at intermediate. 'It was essentially about how big a problem child abuse was and what you could do about it if it happened to you.”
Afterwards, her peers approached her and related their own experiences. 'So me speaking out was helping other people realise they could speak out too.”
And Larissa got locked in a difficult relationship once. 'He wasn't the greatest man and it took me a while to appreciate that and extricate myself.
'We all date the wrong ones at some time.” And because of those experiences, and because she wants to make a difference, she wants to be a policewoman.
Are beauty pageants bitchy? 'No!” The multi-faceted Larissa rolls her eyes just noticeably enough to give you the message. Are the girls nasty, catty, spiteful?
'Well, it's very competitive so it would be easy to be bitchy. But in fact it's a very pleasant, very nice environment.”
'There's a stereotyping of beauty pageants and beauty queens and I guess I am here to tell you the stereotyping is all wrong.”
Sure the pageant is about beauty, but Larissa says they have evolved with opportunities for women to showcase intelligence, performance skills, character and confidence.
The reporter gets the stare. 'We are not ditzes. Most of us have had a tertiary education. 'There was a doctor in the semi-finals. We are educated women. We are about self-empowering and supporting each other.”
Driven, ambitious and smart women who happen to be beautiful.
'It is easy to be critical and I guess it's time to stop with the tall poppy syndrome in New Zealand. Why cut people down, we should be celebrating each other.”
So let's celebrate Larissa and her determination. She didn't make the cut in last year's contest, so there was unfinished business. 'I just thought ‘I know I can do this, I need to give it another chance'.”
There were anxious moments. For the first cull, when they were whittling down the field, 20 names were called. Hers was the eighteenth.
'I knew this was going to be an experience I would learn from.”
And what people didn't see was the top five, including our Larissa, backstage having a group hug and saying ‘whoever wins, we are happy for you'. 'And in January, 20 of us are going to get together and have a slumber party to watch Tania Dawson in the world finals.”
Larissa gets quiet emotional at the thought. 'I went to an all girls' school, I know about meanness, I know what girls can be like to each other. So it's cool to see how far women have come in supporting each other.”
And she's a giving person. 'That's learned. Mum's a nurse and Dad works for the Graeme Dingle Foundation – it works on the wellbeing of young people. It's a nice feeling knowing you might be improving someone else's life, making it a little bit easier.”
She knew that feeling from a young age. Because when she was 13 she won a youth award for starting up something called ‘Little Lar's Lollies'. ‘Lar' being Larissa, packed snackboxes of lollies and distributed them around Tauranga. All the profits went Women's Refuge.
Does the beauty queen with a serious daytime job and ambitions for the police force have time for herself?
'We have been together two years and we are building a home together. It takes a special person to date me when I am so busy.
'But that's what he liked about me from the get go, that I am always helping people.”
He probably thinks she's is beautiful as well, and not just a blonde beauty contest airhead.
'Well, I am blonde.”
And she won't let a cheap shot pass. 'The pageants definitely still have relevance. And I will recommend it to as many women as I can – especially those I believe have a good fit and a good heart.
'It's a great learning experience. And we discover we can do a lot more than we think we can.”