After all of the preliminaries, and of course the Show Us Your Shoes parade, the Miss America 2014 pageant finally came to an end on Sunday night, September 15th, in Atlantic City, NJ. We're so exited to announce that Miss New York, Nina Davuluri, is your new Miss America!
At around 10:40 last night, the pageant dwindled down to only 5 contestants: Miss Oklahoma Kelsey Griswold, Miss Minnesota Rebecca Yeh, Miss California Crystal Lee, Miss New York Nina Davuluri, and Miss Florida Myrrhanda Jones. One of the most interesting parts of the pageant is always the interview portion, and that's what the Top 5 Contestants competed in before the final winner was chosen. All the contestants were given difficult questions, from celebrities to politics, and gave us some great insight into their beliefs.
Miss New York's question was: "Julie Chen had plastic surgery to appear less Asian. What do you think of her decision?" Nina said she opposes plastic surgery, but added, "I've always viewed Miss America as the girl next door and the girl next door is evolving." Such a great answer, and with Miss Kansas, Theresa Vail, showing off her tattoo so prominently this year, it couldn't be more true.
The final results for the Runner-Up spots ended up being: Miss Minnesota taking Fourth Runner-Up, Miss Florida taking Third Runner-Up, Miss Oklahoma taking Second Runner-Up, and Miss California taking the spot as First Runner-up.
Some other highlights from the pageant we loved: Miss Florida, Myrrhanda Jones, so proudly and confidently wearing a knee brace on stage. We especially love that the knee brace was bedazzled! Myrrhanda ended up hurting her knee during rehearsals for the pageant's last night of preliminary competition, and instead of calling it quits, she put on the brace and continued on to become the Third Runner-up! Such persistence!
We also loved Miss America 2013's farewell note that was posted on the official Miss America Organization Facebook page. She wrote, "Signing off, guys... Love you! -Miss America 2013 Mallory Hagan," and posted the above image. Too cute!
And, you have to love that Miss New York has now been crowned Miss America for two consecutive years! Former Miss New York and Miss America 2013 must have been very proud to hand over the crown to Miss New York in this year's pageant. Nina is also the first contestant of Indian heritage to win the Miss America pageant.
Congrats, Nina! We're so exited to welcome you as our Miss America 2014, and cannot wait to follow your happenings and experiences over the coming year!
Source: Associated Press, ABC