While watching Hannah Brown last season on “The Bachelor,” Susu Hale Prout was reminded of something she had seen in the Northport native ever since Brown was a preschooler.

“She’s always been very engaging,” said Prout, artistic director of the Academy of Ballet and Jazz in Northport, who taught Brown how to dance. “When she would talk, you could see her friends wanted to hear everything that she said.”

Now, Prout and millions of others will watch as Brown, a Tuscaloosa County High alumna and former Miss Alabama USA, will set out to find love on the newest season of “The Bachelorette,” which premieres Monday night. Brown, who was eliminated during the seventh week of “The Bachelor” with season lead Colton Underwood, was chosen as the latest “Bachelorette” in March. This season, 33 men will compete for her romantic attention.

“I feel all the emotions, but honestly, I’m just grateful for this opportunity,” Brown told “Bachelor” host Chris Harrison after the “Bachelorette” announcement in March.

Brown will be the show’s 15th “Bachelorette” since the show premiered in 2003.

Seeing her close-up

Prout began teaching Brown to dance when Brown was 3 years old. Even then, Prout saw small glimmers of who she would become.

“She always did things with a beautiful smile on her face,” Prout said. “Those dimples have been there since Day One.”

More than just her looks, Brown is someone who has a lot of passion for life, Prout said.

“What I saw is that she loves life,” she said. “She had so much fun with her dance friends.”

Brown and the “Bachelorette” host recently filmed a TV segment in Tuscaloosa, where they caught up with Prout at the Bama Theatre. Brown and Harrison also visited Rama Jama’s, Christy's Ladies' Apparel and Gift Boutique, and Hair Impressions, a hair salon owned by her father, Robert.

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“When she got on the stage, she just shined,” Prout told Harrison during the segment.

Prout said she feels protective of Brown, especially with how she has been open to critique on a national platform.

“She’s a wonderful person, but she’s putting herself out there in the limelight and there’s going to be people that like her and people that don’t like her, but they don’t know the real Hannah,” Prout said. “I hope that when she’s in this process, these bachelors do see the real Hannah and they will fall in love with her because she’s a great person.”

Hannah McMurphy, a Tuscaloosa native who succeeded Brown as Miss Alabama USA, said that she has come to know Brown to be a person who not only supported her when she became Miss Alabama USA, but also was genuinely happy for her.

“I’ve never known Hannah to be a jealous person,” McMurphy said. “Whoever she is friends with, she will be their biggest supporter.”

Although the show has already been filmed and edited, McMurphy said that if she had some advice for her going into the show, it would be to just stay true to herself.

“I think I would tell her to trust her gut,” McMurphy said. “I want her to find the love she deserves.”

From a reporter and fan

One person who will be watching the “The Bachelorette” with interest will be Amy Kaufman, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. As well as being a fan of both “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette,” Kaufman wrote the New York Times bestselling book “Bachelor Nation: Inside the World of America's Favorite Guilty Pleasure,” which chronicled the history of the show and revealed things about the production that had not been reported before, such as alleged deception in editing and producers dictating how different seasons would go.

For Kaufman, “The Bachelorette” differs from “The Bachelor” not only because of its female perspective, but the way the contestants interact with one another.

“Men fight and bicker in a really different way than the women,” Kaufman said. “A lot of times, it is much more competitive.”

Kaufman said she was somewhat surprised by Brown’s selection as the newest “Bachelorette.” Part of that surprise came from Brown’s first date with Underwood, where she had difficulty coming up with a toast.

“My biggest concern with her as the ‘Bachelorette’ is that she may not be that articulate or that she doesn’t know what she wants yet,” she said. “On that date where she had to do a toast on 'The Bachelor' and she couldn’t string two words together, I was like, ‘How’s this girl going to handle an entire season?’ ”

Kaufman also said that as opposed to other contestants from Brown’s time on “The Bachelor,” such as Caelynn Mill-Keyes, who spoke about her experience with sexual assault, Brown did not seem to have a defined narrative.

“I guess it’s more that I will have to tune in to discover what her thing is,” she said. “I really don’t know yet, other than the fact that she used to do pageants, which is not a personality.”

Kaufman said it is likely that Brown’s experience on “The Bachelor” was enough to prepare her for “The Bachelorette.” Nonetheless, she has an idea of why producers felt Brown was the right choice for this season.

“I feel like they thought maybe she would be a little more down for whatever and outspoken,” she said. “I think you notice even on ‘The Bachelor’ and as the season went on, she was a pageant girl, but on a lot of the dates, she didn’t wear makeup and she seemed pretty comfortable being herself in a way some of the other contestants didn’t. It’s a hard balance to find someone who is loose like that, but can also voice what they’re looking for.”

As a fan of the show, Kaufman said she tends to be drawn to a certain type of “Bachelorette.”

“Actually, when I think about it, the ones I responded to the most were the quote-unquote ‘Fun ones’ like Jillian (Harris) and Kaitlyn (Bristowe): the ones who laughed a lot and didn’t take themselves too seriously,” she said. “I don’t know if that translates into ratings, but it definitely means to me that they are a cool person.”

From one 'Bachelorette' to another

Desiree Hartsock, who was the “Bachelorette” during the show’s ninth season in 2013, said she was excited to see Brown as the next “Bachelorette.”

“I think she’s down-to-earth and will be strong enough to be a lead and tell the guys what’s up because it’s really important to be strong and confident,” Hartsock said. “I think she will be wonderful.”

Hartsock went on to marry one of her season’s contestants, Chris Siegfried, and now has two children, which she said keeps her away from watching “The Bachelor,” on a regular basis. However, she was drawn in by Brown early on.

“I was able to see how sweet she was,” she said.

Speaking to the appeal of the show after 16 years, Hartsock said she feels that both “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” show people who are trying to connect with other people.

“I feel like everyone deep down, regardless of how cynical we might be, we are all a hopeless romantic,” she said. “We all hope that someone finds love and that we find love. I think that’s the lasting power of it, is that it gives a glimpse of hope to everyone.”

Hartsock said she understands why some people might be skeptical about how genuine the romance can be on the show. In fact, she was a skeptic before going through the process. However, she said she believes people like Brown can find love on “The Bachelorette,” which she credits to the few distractions from love the show provides.

“There are too many distractions nowadays, so people might just go on a date, but then they meet someone else, whereas on the show, you have no book, no TV, no phone, no nothing, so you are really just diving into your feelings, which is what works because it is a short amount of time that you're dealing with feelings and stuff that you normally don’t even get to within a year or so in a normal relationship,” she said.

Hartsock said that if she could give Brown advice, she would tell her to tune out what people say about her online and to keep the focus on her relationship.

“I think now is the hardest time because you have a thousand million opinions through social media,” she said. “I would say just stay true to you, focus on the relationship and forget about any outside opinions.”

The newest season of “The Bachelorette” will premiere at 7 p.m. Monday on ABC.

Reach Drew Taylor at drew.taylor@tuscaloosanews.com or 205-722-0204.