Miss America

Kelley Johnson, the Miss America contestant representing Colorado, has made headlines this week for her very different approach to the pageant’s talent contest. Johnson decided not to sing or dance, as is traditional, but performed a monologue. Dressed in scrubs, Johnson explained how her talent is nursing and how she had encountered one patient, Joe, who was very special to her.

Ellen Degeneres at the 41st Annual People's Choice Awards in January 2015.

Read More: Taylor Swift Is Joined Onstage By Alanis Morissette, Ellen DeGeneres And Natalie Maines During LA Concert.

Continue reading: Miss Colorado, Kelley Johnson, Defends Nurse Monologue On ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’

Vanessa Williams returned to the Miss America pageant on Sunday (September 14th) as a guest judge, over 30 years after she resigned her crown following the publication of nude photographs in Penthouse magazine. At the ceremony, Williams received an official apology from pageant chairman Sam Haskell for the way she was treated by the organisation back in 1984.

Vanessa Williams returned to the Miss America pageant on Sunday (September 14th).

“I have been a close friend to this beautiful and talented lady for 32 years,” Haskell said after Williams had finished her performance of ‘How the Years Go By”. “You have lived your life in grace and dignity and never was it more evident than during the events of 1984 when you resigned.”

Continue reading: Vanessa Williams Finally Receives An Apology From Miss America Pageant

The Miss World competition will no longer feature a swimsuit competition, the organisation announced on Thursday (18th December).

Megan Young was crowned 2013's Miss World, photographed here at the 2014 competition in London.

Read More: Miss Philippines Megan Young Wins Miss World Amid Religious Tensions In Indonesia.

Continue reading: Miss World Organisation Decides To End Swimsuit Round Of 63 Year Old Competition

Nina Davuluri – Miss New York and now, Miss America 2013, hasn’t let hate-filled and racist comments about her victory ruin her moment. In fact, the American beauty says for the New York Daily News that she didn’t expect to win, but she was prepared for the backlash that followed. “It was something I wasn’t surprised about,” Davuluri told the New York Daily News. “I’d experienced those same kind of remarks when I’d won Miss New York and I knew if I won Miss America it would happen again.”

Davuluri's victory marks a significant shift for the pageant.

Of course, Davuluri’s victory as an Indian American woman represents a significant shift in the pageant’s tone, which ordinarily adheres to European beauty standards (with several notable exceptions, of course.) One of these exceptions was Vanessa Williams, who won Miss America exactly thirty years ago, in 1983. It’s no wonder then that out of all her supporters and mentors, Davuluri cites Williams as her biggest inspiration. “She had the similar response and backlash when she was crowned,” says Davuluri, who met Williams backstage at her Broadway show “The Trip to Bountiful.”

Continue reading: Nina Davulury On The Why, What And What Now Of Being Miss America

The winner of 2013 Miss America was the second consectutive New Yorker to win but she is the first Indian-American to be crowned the beauty pageant winner.

Nina Davuluri was born in Syracuse, New York and the 24 year-old has admitted to preparing herself for a racial hate backlash if she was crowned Miss America.

On the 15th September in Atlantic City, Davuluri won the revered beauty pageant but it wasn’t celebrated for long as her parade was dampened by thousands of tweets targeting her racial heritage.

Continue reading: Miss America Pageant Winner Expected Race Hate Backlash

Miss New York, the Indian-American model Nina Davuluri won the Miss America 2014 pageant on Sunday (September 15, 2013). The field was narrowed down to Davuluri - the second Miss New York winner in successive years - and Miss California, Crystal Lee.

Contestants were judged on a personal interview, a demonstration of a talent, an on-stage question and an appearance in both evening gown and swimwear. Davuluri impressed the judges with a Bollywood fusion dance and was asked about American television personality Julie Chen's plastic surgery on her eyes. The new Miss America noted that she was opposed to plastic surgery and that everyone's diversity should be celebrated.

As the winner, Davuluri will receive a $50,000 scholarship, which she will use to pay for graduate school.

Continue reading: Indian-American Nina Davuluri Is Miss America 2014, And America Is ANGRY

Tattoos, archery skills and a career in the military – doesn’t sound like your typical beauty pageant contestant. And yet there Sgt. Theresa Vail is, or at least she will be, in the Miss America pageant, representing Kansas and challenging stereotypes in what might be the most stereotyped competition in the world. The preliminaries began on Tuesday, September 10 in Atlantic City, when Sgt. Vail became the second servicewoman ever to compete in the pageant, and the very first to have her tattoos - the insignia for the U.S. Army Dental Corps on her left shoulder and the Serenity Prayer running down her right side – out on display.

On first glance, Sgt Vail looks just like your average Miss America contestant. Until you look closer, that is.

Sgt. Vail explained her motivation for participating in Miss America in her video introduction (which you can watch below). In it, she says: “The two jobs might be on opposite ends of the spectrum, but they’re also very similar.”

Continue reading: Sgt. Theresa Vail Breaks Miss America Stereotypes With Tattoos And Military Experience

Miss America has been and gone already and this year’s winner is none other than Brooklyn beauty Mallory Hagan.

The 23-year-old Miss New York appeared completely shocked to be crowned at last night’s (January 12) show, after beating out 52 other contestants for the title. Now, the Miss America pageant, which is also a scholarship program (Google it!), is not to be confused with the Miss USA competition, that would just be absurd!

Contestants for Miss America are required to display some sort of talent, and also go through the interview portion of the event with some kind of decent answer. Hagan’s talent was tap dancing and, when asked what she thought about the debate over school shootings and the proposition that armed guards should be put in place in schools, she had this to say: “I don't think the proper way to fight violence is with violence. I think the proper way is to educate people on guns and the ways we can use them properly. We can lock them up, we can have gun safety classes, we can have a longer waiting period.” Sounds like a queen-like answer to us.

Continue reading: Miss New York Mallory Hagan Wins Miss America 2013

Miss District Of Coumbia struts her stuff at the Miss America Preliminaries

We're pretty sure most people who've clicked onto this story have no interest in these words whatsoever, so off you go, have a good sure-to-be-fulfilling ogle. For the rest of you though, you might be interested to know that these pictures were taken from the Miss America preliminaries which took place last night (January 8, 2013) as the long and dubiously arduous road to being crowned Miss America 2013 got under way.

Continue reading: Put Your Best Side Forward: Miss America Preliminaries Get Under Way (Pictures)