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Everybody out there watches the show and has expectations of wanting to be an 'Idol', but we're going to teach them how much hard work goes into it.

Idolatry is really not good for anyone. Not even the idols.

I grew up always wanting to be a part of 'Idol,' and I never thought I would make it as far as I did. I was really lucky, and it's given me the opportunities that I have now.

I wasn't the typical pageant girl - I was a little more nerdy, and they gave me a voice. I created the Queen of the Universe pageant, which is charity-based, to benefit UNESCO. For me, the most important thing is that contestants have a charity-based platform or charity ambition.

'American Idol' is sometimes lumped with reality shows and it has that element - folks-next-door battling it out in a contest. But instead of fighting leeches, bugs, parasites and each other, as on CBS's 'Survivor' and other shows that imitate it, the 'American Idol' contestants, of course, sing.

The people that go on 'American Idol' do want some recognition and fame.

Those 'Idol' shows are kind of scary to me. They wanted me to be on one of those panels one time, and I said it's the last thing in the world I'd ever want to do. I would hate to have to discourage somebody.

In pageants, you are evaluated from head to toe and it's obviously all about looks, and as vain as that is, they can also bring you lots of opportunities to do amazing things.

It's just not my nature to go around idolizing people.

I think, for me, winning opens doors to all types of shapes and sizes and genres to come on the show and kill it. I'm probably the antithesis of what American Idols have been.