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Miss America 2021: Who Won, and What It All MeansMiss Alaska, Emma Broyles, was the winner of a $100,000 scholarship at the competition, as it attempts to modernize in its centennial year
By Rory Satran Follow / Photographs by Jasmine Clarke for The Wall Street Journal
Updated Dec. 17, 2021 10:48 pm ET
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Growing up, the new Miss America Emma Broyles was skeptical about the whole swimsuit thing, the aspect of the competition that long scored contestants on how they modeled bathing suits onstage. “I think that that was actually one of the things that prevented me from wanting to compete at Miss Alaska,” Ms. Broyles told me earlier this week. But then in 2018, led by its then-chairwoman the TV anchor Gretchen Carlson, who was Miss America in 1989, the organization got rid of the swimsuit segment along with any rankings based on physical appearance. After that, Ms. Broyles went all in, training seriously in voice lessons at Arizona State University and advocating for her cause, the Special Olympics. Ms. Broyles became the first Korean-American Miss America last night, at the final competition in Uncasville, Conn. When we spoke between rehearsals and competition, she wore a sweatshirt and Birkenstocks with no makeup.
Since the pivotal changes of 2018, the nonprofit Miss America Organization has strove to reposition itself. Stripped of its more superficial elements—at least officially— it focuses more on the candidates’ values and the scholarship element. But when I traveled to the Mohegan Sun casino complex to observe the preliminary competitions and meet the candidates, I found an organization that felt caught between its glamorous yet problematic past and a more contemporary future.
Candidates rehearse on the second day of competition.
The first step in leaving behind the more outmoded aspects of the competition is to ditch the word “pageant.” I learned the hard way not to use it when I was admonished during my interview with Shantel Krebs, the current Miss America Organization board chairwoman and interim president and CEO (an unpaid, volunteer position, like most roles in the organization). “We call them candidates because they’re competing for the job of Miss America,” said Ms. Krebs, a former South Dakota secretary of state and Miss South Dakota 1997, who was also in the news in 2016 when she shot a rattlesnake outside her home.
The job of Miss America, which is paid a six-figure salary, typically involves nearly nonstop travel—up to 20,000 miles per month—as well as high-profile speaking engagements. When Covid hit, the reigning winner Camille Schrier was grounded at home for months. She told me that her unconventional tenure, which has lasted for two years instead of the typical one, suited her unconventional nature. Ms. Schrier, who won the competition in part by presenting a science experiment in a white lab coat, never quite fit the mold.
Miss New York Sydney Park, a graduate of Columbia undergrad and current Fordham law student, was the third runner-up.
In addition to talent (which runs the gamut from hokey skills like speed-painting to impressive classical music performance), the candidates are scored on: a private 10-minute interview with panelists; a social-impact presentation; an on-stage interview (in red-carpet garb); and the “Miss America Challenge”—a question about how the candidate would handle a difficult situation in the job. While some of the content felt familiar—baton-twirling in skimpy outfits, professions of patriotism—certain candidates rebelled in subtle ways.
Miss West Virginia performed a poem in jeans and a T-shirt.
PHOTO: MISS AMERICA ORGANIZATION
On the first night of the preliminaries, Miss West Virginia Jaelyn Wratchford stepped onto the stage in jeans and a white T-shirt for her talent performance, the reading of an original poem. In the context of this showy scholarship competition, still a bastion of spangled gowns and heavy makeup, her stripped-down look stood out. Her poem was about being true to yourself, including the line: Other women are not your enemy. After her performance, she told me, “No one else gets to tell me that I am less of a woman because of how I dress.”
Miss West Virginia was not the only woman to read a poem she’d written as her talent. Miss New York, law student Sydney Park, read verses that lambasted the idea that one should “sit like a lady.” She referenced “Madam Vice President” positively, and the idea that a woman belonged in the Oval Office. Most Miss America candidates tend to stay safely apolitical, with the notable exception of Madeline Collins, Miss West Virginia of 2018, who stated clearly during the competition that year that “Donald Trump is the biggest issue facing our country.” Ms. Park, who has interned for two New York Supreme Court judges, said that she saw the Miss America stage as an opportunity to speak up. She said, “For so long, we’ve put women in little boxes and said, ‘Look at how pretty they are.’ And now we’re saying, ‘No, women have something to say and they have something worthwhile to say.’”
No one else gets to tell me that I'm less of a woman because of how I dress.— Jaelyn Wratchford, Miss West Virginia
Ms. Park’s fashion sense, too, stood out as relatively contemporary in a sea of old-school gowns by competition go-to (and sponsor) Sherri Hill, which sells prom dresses as well as “couture” pieces that can run into the five figures. Among Ms. Park’s sleeker looks were tailored pieces by New York City mom-and-pop operation Flatiron Tailor Shop. To present her poem, she wore a white suit, the classic suffragette-evoking outfit. Emma Broyles also wore a white suit during the competition.
Miss Massachusetts, Elizabeth Pierre, spoke to me about a desire to present her true self onstage. Ms. Pierre, a Black woman whose parents immigrated from Haiti, is the only person in her family to be born in America. Although some people advised her to straighten her hair to look “professional” for the competition, it was important to her to wear her signature knotless braids. Ms. Pierre said that in the past, “The standard of beauty was white women,” but that “over the years, it’s evolved into this organization that truly empowers every single woman and makes sure that everybody can shine.”
Elizabeth Pierre, second runner-up, is the first Miss Massachusetts of Haitian descent.
How does one square a focus on values with the undeniable fact that most contestants are still drop-dead gorgeous, and dressed to the nines for most of the competition? The candidates I spoke with compared it to wanting to put your best foot forward, as with a job interview. The current Miss America Ms. Schrier explained, “You wouldn’t walk into a job interview in your pajamas, right? So if you want to compete for the job of a lifetime, you want to look the part.” She acknowledges that there is some tension inherent in the game. “There’s a balance between looking your best and presenting the best version of yourself, but also not feeling like you’re going to be judged on what you look like in that room. But it’s really what you say that matters.”
Over a period of five days, the Miss America event includes rehearsals, receptions, competition events open to the public and a memorabilia exhibition.
Whether they wear polished suits, sparkly jumpsuits (another trend), or classic gowns, the competition outfits don’t come cheap. Some contestants have pieces sponsored, or paid for by generous state competition boards (which are licenses of the Miss America Organization). Many pay for their looks themselves. However, they all do their own hair and makeup for most events, a rule that was put in place a few years back.
Miss West Virginia, the poet in jeans, told me that she discussed the financial burden of participating in these competitions at her private interview with the panelists. When she’s not in jeans, she often wears thrift-shop dresses to compete. “I joined the Miss America organization because of the scholarships,” she said. “So, why would I earn a $500 scholarship, and then go pay for a $500 dress? That doesn’t make sense.”
Feathers and sparkles adorn one of the more traditional outfits.
Nearly everyone involved in Miss America—from its legion of volunteers to its contestants to its fans—stresses the integrality of the scholarship component to the organization. Every candidate I spoke to said that was what motivated them to get involved in competitions. During the competition, many candidates speak about their desire to graduate from college “debt-free.” In a sense, the focus on scholarship money could be seen as an indictment of the overwhelming cost of higher education in our country. Or, as a challenge to be overcome. Ms. Krebs said, “Women carry the higher financial burden and debt load for higher education. So we are the perfect organization to fill that gap.” Ms. Krebs is right: women hold 58% of student debt, according to the Education Data Initiative.
Being Miss America might provide scholarship dollars but it doesn’t necessarily help you get a long-term job. The current Miss America Ms. Schrier told me that she didn’t put her role at the top of her CV. It’s there, just not in the most prominent spot. And Caressa Cameron-Jackson, Miss America 2010 and one of this year’s hosts, told me, “Saying I was Miss America is not something I lead with. And not because I’m ashamed of it, but because of peoples’ preconceived notions of who I might be as a result of that past. So I always allow that to be a fun fact that people learn after they figure out whether they’re going to like me or not.”
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