This cover represents some of the most important themes from Beauty Queens including identity and gender roles. The book begins with 50 materialistic beauty queens that immerse in the pageant world and lose their true self identity. As the girls live life on the "deserted" island, they begin to find themselves, discover what is important to them and truly accept who they are. They struggle with understanding and separating their two identities, their beauty queen side and their true side. On the right side of this cover you see a typical beauty queen with long, maintained hair, perfectly made-up face, tiara and jewelry; this represents the girls prior to their life on the island. The left side depicts the image of the girls accepting their true identity, less concerned about the materialistic products and more concerned about finding and accepting themselves. This can be especially seen in the machete cut hair, lack of make up and bruises to represent their struggle for survival and emotional "bruises" they endure from letting others see who they truly are. Gender roles are ironically discussed throughout the novel and are represented on this alternate through the "true" image of a woman on the right and the non-stereotypical woman on the left.
The back cover depicts the plane crashing and is very similar to the original back cover. However, we felt that in order to make it truly reflect the inner struggles and their progression towards becoming a less materialized version of themselves, certain aspects needed to be added. We felt the plan crash was a symbolic representation of how their lives would drastically change once they stepped foot on the island. They would lose parts of themselves they thought were important i.e. materialistic products, and in turn gain a true sense of self.
