Flip on the TV Thursday morning and look for these three Liberty High School cheerleaders in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Hillary Felver is blond, Emily Walters is brunette and Lily Najera, well, you might have to squint. She weighs only 95 pounds.

They’ll be wearing skirts, tights and white sweaters with red stars.

You have to look closely and early. They are in the opening act of the 9 a.m. parade, ahead of 10,000 other participants and the cartoon helium balloons.

Talk about pressure to perform. Several million spectators cram Manhattan’s streets for a close-up view and another 50 million watch the 3-hour parade on NBC.

The Liberty seniors are going with a cheer group, not the school. They hit up their parents and had a yard sale to fund the trip. They headed to New York City Saturday to practice the routine they’ll do for 2.5 miles through the streets of the Big Apple.

It’s not all rah-rah-sis-boom-bah.

“What people don’t understand is that it’s a real sport. They don’t look past us as being girls wearing skirts; they think we just shake our butts for the fun of it,” Emily says.

“It’s hard work. It’s very strenuous. We’re very competitive as well,” Lily says.

“It’s girls getting hurt,” Hillary says. “Tears. Blood. Sweat.”

Bloody lips. Bloody noses. Pulled muscles. Bring it on.

Emily, a longtime softball player, joined the Liberty Lancers her sophomore year because her big sister cheered.

“My personality doesn’t fit as a stereotypical cheerleader because I burp,” Emily says. “Give me a soda and I will BURP. I was voted class clown.”

She plans to play softball, not cheer, in college.

Hillary hopes to make a college cheer squad. “I’ve been doing it a good half of my life. I don’t want to quit,” she says.

Lightweight Lily is a “flyer,” meaning she gets tossed around like a football.

“I wanted to be a cheerleader since freshman year. My mom wouldn’t let me because she knew I’d be the one who they’d throw in the air,” she says. “She finally let me try out last year.”

She hasn’t been dropped. Not yet.

Flying is good practice for Lily’s future. “I am going to enlist in the Air Force after high school,” she says.

There is only one thing holding back the 5-foot-2 teen. “I have to weigh 104.”

Toward this goal, she gained 10 pounds over the past six months. Nine more pounds to go.

Most of us can accomplish this in one day — Thanksgiving Day.

Now, we can have an extra slice of pie and say we’re doing it for Lily.

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Liberty High School cheerleaders, from left: Emily Walters, Lily Najera and Hillary Felver Photo by Photo courtesy of Emily Walters