In August of 1979, the Associated Press wire service ran a multi-part newspaper series over three consecutive days on beauty pageants, which included Miss Teen USA. The series stated that a company called "Miss Teen USA Corp" was formed in 1979, which oversaw the national pageant and in-house and franchised state-level Miss Teen USA pageants. The Miss Teen USA pageant was registered in 1979 to operate under its trade name in the states of New Jersey and Virginia, according to the Burlington County, New Jersey Consumer Affairs Office, which had received inquiries from the public about the legitimacy of it and two other pageants, Miss U.S. Teen-age and Miss National Teen-age, the latter which was not registered but had held a pageant recently.