Kara DiNatale of Fox Chapel really liked participating in pageants when she was a little girl. But around the time she turned 10, soccer and lacrosse left her little time to focus on pageants. But when the 19-year-old Duquesne University marketing student was asked to consider entering the Miss Little Italy pageant during last month’s Little Italy Days festival in Bloomfield, her interest was piqued.

“I started doing pageants when I was 5 and thought it was something cool and really liked participating,” she said. “But then I went the sports route and stopped doing them.”DiNatale said her return to pageants started with a text message from her aunt.