Miss USA Org Time of Death:

Let's lay this false industry down to rest.

In 2020, just minutes after winning the Miss Montana USA crown, a title I had fought for 7 years to attain, my state director's husband pulled me to the side desperate to tell me something of great importance. “You need to use white lip liner around your lipstick to make your lips look larger. It looks way better on stage,” he announced with assertion. Still clutching onto my winner's flower bouquet, I nodded in agreement, I guess my lips are on the smaller side. Certainly, that was pertinent information I needed to hear at that exact moment.

Only seconds later, my new state-sponsored pageant coach excitedly relayed that I had a $10,000 sponsorship to a cosmetic dentist, which she adamantly encouraged me to utilize. “You’ve got a little gap in your front teeth to get rid of! It’s always bothered me!” She cackled as she escorted me to the winner's dining table. I had known her long before competition weekend. The pageant community is small and congested. 

Pageants are problematic. Not because of the women who compete in them. Looking beyond the crowns and titleholders, there is an injury that most onlookers fail to identify. The flaw of beauty pageants is mercilessly woven by those conducting the experience: directors, coaches, and judges. The power of beauty attracts avaricious personalities who find the taste of young women willing to sacrifice anything to be deemed beautiful irresistible. I know this because this was me and what I experienced. 

The fall of Miss USA is not the result of women longing to be community leaders who also spend hours attaining perfect hair. The broken crown is a consequence of those in charge who insult and belittle. Lie, and fabricate. Who encourage titleholders to change their appearance on the pretense that their nose is too large or their chest is too small. To spend copious amounts of money when they know damn well they don’t have even the smallest chance of winning. And as of late, directors yearning for the spotlight to be placed on themselves rather than the titleholders. 

“It was rigged! I didn’t win because it was rigged!” We hear this at exhaustion, and often we scoff at the temper tantrums thrown by contestants who didn’t strut away with winning accolades. I said it in 2015. I competed at Miss California USA for the second time. When I didn’t receive a top placement a random woman caught my attention afterward. She had circled my headshot in the program book, pinning me to be in the Top 5 after watching my on-stage performance. “It’s because of the makeup artist that sponsors you,” she whispered. “They’re always watching. If you don’t work with the people they want you to, they’ll never let you win.” My inexperience clutched to this statement like a dehydrated stray cat hunts for milk. True or not, my amateur understanding of the pageant world allowed my imagination to run amok. 

Pageants are in crisis because those in charge exploit their contestants and titleholders. Beauty pageants are a lucrative industry and women have clamored to be involved for decades. Some pageant devotees will do and give and spend anything to become so-called beautiful enough to be a Miss USA. 

I’ve sat in tear-filled dressing rooms alongside women whose coaches, designers, and make-up artists repeatedly told them how they had a chance to win their next pageant. Some did deserve to win. And some, by pageant industry judging standards, didn’t stand a chance. Their bank accounts are equally drained in pursuit of the crown. 

Non-winning participants are angry after the conclusion of the competition. Many former queens resent the industry in totality. Reigning titleholders are relinquishing crowns they fought tooth and nail to attain. A contestant at the 2024 Miss Oregon USA pageant has lit up an internet uproar citing a dubious perspective of the organization's integrity and transparency within judging parameters. The same story occurred at Miss Connecticut USA just a few weeks before. The tension of winner vs runner-ups pushes the narrative that contestants hate the new titleholder. Instead, let’s look at the puppeteers rather than the puppets. 

Noelia and Uma have stepped down from their titles as Miss USA and Miss Teen USA. If you don’t already know the story, check this out. Despite negative feedback from her fellow USA sisters, Miss Hawaii USA has placed the broken shards of the Mouawad crown on herself to finish the remaining months of the 2023 reign. Her mother shared varied thoughts on an instagram post by Savannah announcing her decision, citing that pageants are not “about the glitz and the glamor, it’s about the ability to use this platform and speak for women...”

This is where the crux of the issue lies. It IS about the glitz and the glamor, and we’re pretending it’s not. Pageants are about presentation, image, and curation. Somehow we’ve detailed this fantasy that they’re about so much more and we convey that fantasy to new contestants who believe they’ll be able to crush the physical demands of this industry when most cannot. 

Pageants are at a distorted crossroads. Pageantry is birthed from the obsessive male gaze revolving around young unmarried women smiling and posing in swimsuits. Over the 72 years of Miss Universe, the image of the competition and its titleholders has seen a great restructuring. To some extent, it can be said these changes are positive. “Pageants are about uplifting and amplifying women's voices!” A pageant supporter rang out in an instagram comment on Forbes coverage of the recent Miss USA fiasco. During my years of competing, I also clung to this notion. It’s just simply not the truth. Whether or not opportunities come from pageants is not nearly as relevant as the emotional, physical, and mental toll that accompanies the competition, which not only doesn’t amplify women's voices, it actively suppresses them if they are out of the narrative the organization seeks to promote. 

The Miss USA system is unclear as to who they are or what they want. Some tout progressive claims that the system has departed from the physical demands of the “Trump era” which is strangely referred to as “The Glory Days” by old-school pageant fans. Yet, each year the winner's bone structure appears more refined and their abs continue to defy gravity. Winners are more “socially beautiful” than ever. Pageant viewers have criticized that contestants' faces have become frozen with botox and overly plump with filler, that their teeth are glued together and we’ve never seen a plus size representative at Miss USA. (I have also had Botox and filler, and even Kybella so I am throwing myself into this ring of abhorrent beauty standards. My Botox was done so poorly that I could hardly move my face at Miss USA.) Still, the narrative attempts to remain that the titleholders are allegedly images of modern womanhood? 

How can we argue that pageants are about individuality and internal experiences if contestants have less than four minutes to speak and the rest of the competition is spent visually consuming their external appearance? 

“She’s beautiful AND she’s intelligent!” But first, she MUST be beautiful. Pageants cannot exist without beauty…who will watch and who will care? The exclusivity of beauty creates the desire for people to watch the competition in the first place. If we remove it, people will be disinterested. But, we’re pretending that this is not why people watch. We say it’s about the activism and the voice as titleholders are forced to curate instagram posts promoting fast fashion and devote their reigns to sponsorship packages while directors condemn them for engaging in political activism. My director blatantly told me I was competing at Miss USA to be a brand ambassador, not to be an activist, and that I needed to leave my morals behind. But, it’s allegedly about the individual and her thoughts and beliefs? Stop pretending. 

But it’s not about the glitz and glamor, remember? It’s not about the products we’re pushing, the evening gowns we’re forced to wear, the lip gloss that burns our skin…

Non-winning contestants are angry year after year and we call them ungrateful. We say “This is how we know you didn’t deserve the crown” with a haughty superior-than-thou tone. But, can we vilify them for believing what they’re told? Pageant leaders tell contestants that if they buy the $5,000 gowns from the state's sponsor, use the sponsored spray tan, train with their coaches, etc. they will be ready to win. And when they don’t. They’re pissed, and rightfully so. They did what they were told, and it wasn’t enough. They’re then given no answers, no conclusion to months or years of hard work. There is no transparency in pageant competition and this leads to resentment. Women often leave the USA system fuming and exhausted. Many expressed they maxed out credit cards, took out loans, or had multiple jobs to fund their competitions, even when heading to the national pageant. 

Directors expect you to nod and smile along with anything they enforce to maintain the image of the “graceful and humble queen” that is rampant throughout pageantry. We’re meant to cry of modesty and offer gratitude to the judges after a winning moment. Can we compare this to crying and praising a hiring manager for offering you a job you are completely qualified for? One that you worked tirelessly for years for? 

When contestants take to social media to release frustrations, this is not out of greed. They did what they were told and were left without answers. 

Pageants are vain. They attract pomposity and deceit, usually from the leaders. The directors, coaches, designers, and makeup artists adhere to bullshit. They bullshit women to pay copious amounts of money to remain in their financial circulation. In my many years of competing, the hate rarely circulated among the contestants. The vitriol comes from above. 

Layla Rose cosplaying as Miss USA is no surprise to me. She’s living out unfulfilled dreams like so many other professionals in the beauty pageant industry. Rampant with gossip, backstabbing, and pitting contestants against each other. 

A judge at my state pageant (also a sponsored coach) took credit for my win. She excitedly told me that she convinced the rest of the judges to select me even though I was a ‘state hopper.’ 

“I pulled all of the judges aside and told them you had a chance for Montana to finally place at Miss USA!” She beamed radiantly as she told me as if it was a joy for me to hear. I could do nothing but nod and smile at her in return however, I was filled with confusion and anger. A year later I discovered that she told my first runner-up that she hated me, didn’t want me to win, and instructed the first runner-up not to speak to me as it was “a bad look” for her to do so. 

After I won my title, I was relentlessly berated online by a local Montana pageant coach, who had a history of bullying titleholders and hated me for state hopping (sry, I played the game well and was encouraged to move there by the director herself.) My director produces an annual beauty event with “pay to play” award nominations. My online attacker was nominated for an award and attended the event with smiles and praises from the people who were supposed to be on my team. 

Pageant directors prey on young women longing for community or a sense of purpose. Sure, they’re looking to make a living in a capitalist society that demands the exploitation of others and every industry has a level of darkness within it, yet to dangle a shiny crown in front of women who would do anything for it is damaging.

Why are we fooling ourselves? We must stop pretending this industry is built on merit and hard work. Women walk home without the crown and are instead filled with confusion, and directors respond with, “Try again next year! Sign up early for a discount and I’ll give you judges feedback! Here’s a number to a pageant coach who can help you win the crown!” 

The end of pageantry feels near, but I know better. I know it’s not going anywhere. Regardless, I will continue to dissuade others from stepping onto a stage filled with controversy and criticism from random men if your lips aren’t lined with white liner or you have a gap in your teeth. I shouldn’t have to look perfect to gain society's respect and attention. And neither should you.