Miss trailblazer

• By CHANTE DIONNE WARREN
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: May 22, 2008 - Page: 1E - UPDATED: 12:30 a.m.

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

Amber Gautreau, a 5-foot-tall beauty queen with golden tresses and a winning smile, gets looks as much for what she drives as for her pageant wear.

The favorite pastime of the 2008 Miss Louisiana Teen America is maneuvering obstacles along muddy dirt trails from behind the steering wheel of her big-tired, orange, four-wheel drive Jeep Wrangler.

“It’s pretty funny to watch the stares,” said Gautreau, 17. “I’m little bitty and my Jeep is huge. I’m known as the girl in the monster truck.”

Gautreau, a Woodlawn High junior and honor student, joined the Louisiana 4X4 Club two years ago and rides trails on  weekends.

Club members, mostly boys and men, are used to her.

“She handles herself well and has a great time,” said Shawn Piper, 4X4 Club member. “When she gets out there, she gets after it.”

Gautreau, of Baton Rouge, said she wasn’t so confident in the beginning. “The first time it was like, what am I getting myself into? There were all of these guys and dirt paths …” she said.

But when she hit the trails from behind her Jeep, she changed.

“It became a competition between me and the boys to see who could do better,” she said.

Her dedication to the club in turn prompted members to host a fundraiser in Easleyville Sunday to support Gautreau’s plans to compete in the Miss Teen USA Pageant in Tennessee this July.

“I love the 4X4 trail club. They are like family to me,” Gautreau said. “It’s super exciting and so much fun, and it’s a family oriented club. It’s not people drinking and doing stuff.”

When she’s not driving the trails, she’s her school’s cheerleading captain, and a member of National Honor Society and Beta Club.

“School means a lot to me, and I’m all about doing well in school,” she said.