A beauty pageant is a competition traditionally focused on judging and ranking the contestants' physical attributes. Pageants have now moved towards including inner beauty, with criteria covering judging of personality, intelligence, talent, character, and charitable involvement, through private interviews with judges and answers to public on-stage questions. Pageant titles are subdivided into Miss, Mrs. or Ms., and Teen – to clearly identify the difference between pageant divisions.
Miss America is an annual competition that is open to women from the United States between the ages of 18 and 28. Originating in 1921 as a "bathing beauty revue", the contest is judged on competition segments with scoring percentages: Private Interview (30%) – a 10-minute press conference-style interview with a panel of judges, On Stage Question (10%) – answering a judge's question onstage, Talent or HER Story (20%) – a performance talent or 90 second speech, Health and Fitness (20%) – demonstrated physical fitness onstage dressed in athletic wear, and Evening Gown (20%) – modeling evening-wear onstage.
Shandi Ren Finnessey is an American actress, model, TV host and beauty pageant titleholder. She is best known for winning the Miss USA title, as Miss Missouri USA. She previously held the title of Miss Missouri 2002 and competed in Miss America, where she won a preliminary award. She placed as first runner-up at the Miss Universe 2004 competition.
The Miss California competition selects the representative for the state of California in the Miss America competition.
The Miss Washington competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Washington in the Miss America pageant.
The Miss New York scholarship competition selects the representative for the state of New York in the Miss America scholarship competition.
The Miss Indiana competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Indiana in the Miss America Pageant.
Kandice Pelletier Halpin is an American beauty queen, swimwear designer, and dancer from Marietta, Georgia. She competed in the Miss America pageant and on two seasons of the reality television show The Amazing Race.
Lauren Paige Nelson is a beauty queen from Lawton, Oklahoma who holds the Miss America 2007 title. Nelson is the second consecutive Miss America and sixth in the history of Miss America to hail from this state.
Miss America 2008, the 81st Miss America pageant, was held on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, on Saturday, January 26, 2008.
The most frequently presented Miss America awards are for preliminary talent and swimsuit. The talent award was introduced in 1936, and the swimsuit award in 1940. In the 2000s, preliminary awards for evening gown and interview were briefly introduced but were discontinued after two years as it was felt that they made the semi-finalists too predictable.
Katie R. Stam Irk is an American beauty queen from Seymour, Indiana, who was crowned Miss America 2009.
Jeanné Kapela is an American politician and beauty pageant titleholder who has represented Hawaii's fifth district in the Hawaii House of Representatives since 2020. A Democrat, Kapela also was previously crowned Miss Hawaii 2015 and competed in Miss America 2016.
Kalie Kathleen Wright Korfe is an American beauty pageant titleholder and entrepreneur.
Mary Katherine Fechtel is an American titleholder from Leesburg, Florida, who was crowned Miss Florida 2015. She competed for the Miss America 2016 title in September 2015 live on ABC and placed in the top 10.
Bree Morse is an American beauty pageant titleholder from Garden Grove, California, who was crowned Miss California 2015. She competed for the Miss America 2016 title in September 2015.
Daja Breyon Davidson is an American beauty pageant titleholder from Spartanburg, South Carolina, who was crowned Miss South Carolina 2015. She competed for the Miss America 2016 title in September 2015 and was a Top 7 finalist. She is the third African American to be crowned Miss South Carolina.
CC Barber is an American beauty pageant titleholder from Scappoose, Oregon, who was crowned Miss Oregon 2009. She competed for the Miss America 2010 title in January 2010 and placed in the Top 15 semi-finalists.
Marisa Therese Buchheit is an American soprano and beauty pageant titleholder from Chicago, Illinois, who was crowned Miss Illinois 2014 in June 2014. She competed in the nationally televised Miss America 2015 competition in September 2014.
Miss America 2019, the 92nd Miss America pageant, though the Miss America Organization celebrated its 98th anniversary in 2018. This discrepancy is due to national pageants not being held from 1928 to 1932 or in 1934 because of financial problems associated with the Great Depression. The 2019 competition was held in Atlantic City, New Jersey. On May 23, 2018, it was announced that the pageant would air live on ABC on Sunday, September 9, 2018. This was the last Miss America to be aired on ABC before it was moved to NBC beginning from the 2020 pageant.
