Taegen Vivarelli enjoyed ‘everything’ during year as Little Miss Ocean City
OCEAN CITY — Little Miss Ocean City 2025 Taegen Vivarelli may be but 10 years old, but she knows where she is going.
For one, it’s Paris. Her whole bedroom is done up in a Parisian theme. “I want to go to Paris so bad,” she said. Fashion is the reason.
For the other, it’s New York City.
“I want to be a fashion designer in New York with my best friend, Joppy, and we’re going to call our store Glamour and Glitz.”
That is one determined little girl. It wouldn’t be wise to bet against her.
Taegen is going into fifth grade at Upper Township Elementary School this fall after she wraps up her year as Little Miss Ocean City, a year that she loved.
Asked what she enjoyed most, she couldn’t pin it down.
“Honestly, everything! Every single event that I went to was so much fun and I had so much fun spending time and hanging out with Sarah and Taylor,” she said. That’s Sarah Smith, Junior Miss Ocean City 2025, and Taylor Mulford, Miss Ocean City 2025. The three have been ambassadors, representing the city at numerous events.
“They’re such a great influence on me and they both really inspire me,” she said.
Taegen especially liked the Wacky Wednesday events, which feature fun family contests such as taffy sculpting and pie-eating. In the latter event, the crown-heads not only judged, they also took part.
“Me and Taylor were actually competing and I literally smashed my face into the pie, which was pretty funny. Sarah just took a nibble,” she said.
She also enjoyed the plunges — the First Day at the Beach on Jan. 1 and the Business Persons Plunge to kick off the summer season on Memorial Day weekend.
“All the plunges were fun, even though they were very cold,” Taegen noted.
She also liked her photo shoot for the cover of the Little Miss 2026 program book; she wore a gown and a dress on the boardwalk, the beach, the jetty, in the ocean and atop a lifeguard stand.
When she’s not acting in her role as Little Miss Ocean City, she enjoys spending time with her family and dancing. She likes all kinds of dance, but her favorites are acro and contortion.
“Acro is where you flip and contortion is where you bend like a rubber band,” Taegen explained. (Gumby would be impressed seeing her flexibility.)
She recommends that other little girls consider the Little Miss Ocean City Pageant “because everything leading up to the event is so much fun. We go to the water park, we go to Prep’s Pizza. We do so much fun stuff together and we have fun and get to know the other girls in the pageant and they’re really, really nice. I want them to do it for the fun, not for the competing.”
Taegen’s parents are Chris Vivarelli and Danielle D’Intino, both Ocean City High School graduates, and her stepfather is Thomas D’Intino. She has three cats — Mooney and Peanut Butter at her dad’s house and Nelly (named after her mom) at her mom’s house.
Interviewed in late July, Taegen couldn’t wait to ride on a boat with her crown sisters in the Night in Venice Boat Parade.
“That’s the one event I’ve been looking forward to this entire year. What I’ve really been looking forward to is screaming down to my Grandmom. She’ll be on the dock while I’m on the boat,” she said.
In school, her favorites are writing and art. At home, her bedroom is themed to that future visit to Paris to see the fashions — it’s pink and blue with Paris stamps on the curtains and little paintings of Parisian items on her walls.
Does she like croissants? “Yep,” she said. Does she wear a beret? “No.” Well, don’t expect that to stop her. She’ll probably design her own chapeau.
The Little Miss Ocean City 2026 Pageant is 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 15, at the Ocean City Music Pier.
– STORY and PHOTO by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
