The 93rd annual Miss America pageant was held Sunday night in Atlantic City, where it first began in 1921. The pageant has been held in Las Vegas the past six years.
Miss New York won the 2014 Miss America Pageant for the second year in a row. Nina Davuluri became the first Indian-American to take the Miss America title on Sunday night. Miss California, Crystal Lee, placed first runner-up at the pageant, while Miss Oklahoma, Kelsey Griswold, took second runner-up.
Davuluri is a native of Syracuse, N.Y. and wants to be a doctor. She is going to use the $50,000 scholarship from the pageant win to help her apply for medical school. Davuluri’s talent routine was a Bollywood fusion dance and her pageant platform was “celebrating diversity.” She wore a bright yellow dress inspired by her favorite Disney movie, “Beauty and the Beast”, for the evening gown competition.
Davuluri was the first Miss America of Indian heritage, and unfortunately due to her race, she received a lot of negative feedback from viewers. During a news conference after the competition, the first question brought up was about social media users who were upset that someone of Indian heritage had won. She responded to the issue saying, “I have to rise above that, I always viewed myself as first and foremost American.”
Did you tune in for the Miss America pageant last night?
