By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

Dr. Jules Kelvin (Juliette Brown) admits when she is dressed up in her retro ’50s attire of a white dress accented with large pink flowers, attendees often are surprised to learn she is an actual doctor.

When that happens, the 2021 Miss Metro Cruise cheerfully explains how it is possible to do both — be a scientist and a pinup.

“I have always been underestimated when I look pretty but that is unfortunately something that happens,” she said. “So, the nice thing about the pharmaceutical industry is that it is less judgmental in that way. People can be a little quirky and flashy and still be taken seriously. Ultimately, as a scientist we are judged on our body of work that we accomplish and so it is a little different in pinup, because people judge you on what you look like.”

This weekend, Kelvin will be doing the judging as she helps find her replacement at the Miss Metro Cruise preliminary contest, which will be from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the Moose Lodge, 2630 Burlingame Ave. SW. The preliminary contest, hosted by Kentwood’s JA PR Group, will feature classic cars with the contest narrowing the contestants down to the final 10 who will compete at the Wyoming Kentwood Chamber of Commerce’s 17th Annual Metro Cruise, set for Aug. 26 and 27.

“I love to plan an outfit and go through all the effort of getting everything just right in my appearance,” Kelvin said of participating in pinup contests like Miss Metro Cruise. “What I love most is sharing the experience with other pinups that I meet.

“I think it is a really accepting and inclusive group in a way that other things based on appearance are not.”

Participating in pinup contests was not even on Kelvin’s radar until a couple of years ago. She was working on doctorate in neuroscience at Michigan State University.

“To be totally honest I was sort of a late bloomer academically,” Kelvin said. “I had tried every different major you could think of except for science. I think I let it intimidate me when I was younger. It always seems scary and overwhelming like ‘That is a lot of math.’

“As I had my daughter, it was time to be somebody’s role model so I decided to rip the bandage off and go back to school and take a chemistry class and it turned out I was really good at it.”

She earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Saginaw Valley State University because she wanted to go into the medical field. While attending grad school at Michigan State University, she met people in the pharmacology school and found they were “my people.” She earned a doctorate in neuroscience where most of her research has focused.

She also met some other people who connected to another side of her personality.

“I tend to be the more quirky one among the scientists,” she said. “I tend to be a little bit more fashionable then a lot of my colleagues. I like being flashy on the weekends and I have always enjoyed being kind of girlie.

 

“I think people think you can’t be both, which is just not true.”

It all clicked and after the workshop, Kelvin began to look for photo opportunities working with photographers and attending car shows.

“I have to say the people I meet during pinup are the most diverse, motivated and powerful group of women I’ve encountered,” she said, adding that the group represents different ages, body types, sizes, and aesthetics.  

“I always say that my favorite part of the pinup is the sisterhood,” she said.

But the pageants were intimidating because, as Kelvin put it, “not only do you have to put it all together but you have to get up in front of people and be clever.”

In fact, Miss Metro Cruise is the second pageant title she has won in the couple of years of participating. She admitted that the event seemed overwhelming since it was in two parts and featured several well-established pinup artists.

“When I got there everyone was so kind and it was just really welcoming and nice,” she said. “Actually, I think it was lower pressure than other pageants because they do their best to make sure that everyone feels like they are included and they encourage new people to come and do it.”

The win encouraged her to participate in Detroit’s Autorama competition last February, where she again surprised herself by taking home the title.

 

Kelvin has her sights on a couple of competitions in March of 2023, but for now she is enjoying a break from competing.

“I just like going, being positive, and supporting other people who are competing, especially people who are newer,” she said. “And it is nice going and not competing sometimes because I am dealing with a little bit less pressure.”

Along with supporting those competition, she also hopes to have the chance to break the stereotype that scientists are not that interesting by talking to children and young adults about her career path.

“I would like to tell people that they shouldn’t let science intimidate you,” she said. “Scientists are in general very excited about science. If you are curious, come chat us up because we will tell you anything you want to know and some things you don’t.

“I love talking about what I do and how I got there but also the same goes for pinup. Pinup can seem intimidating and overwhelming from a distance, but if you just go talk to a pinup they will tell you their experience of getting there and how it scared them a little bit at first and if you are curious about it you should absolutely try it. We all support each other.”