Miss USA and Miss America: The right way to inform the distinction between the pageants

• Miss USA and Miss America are sometimes confused – however the pageants are utterly completely different.
• Ladies between the ages of 18 and 28 can compete in Miss America. All girls 18 and older can now compete in Miss USA.
• Miss USA has a swimsuit spherical that Miss America removed in 2018.

Are you aware the distinction between Miss USA and Miss America?

They’re two of the biggest pageants within the nation, and each embody a sash and a crown. However that is the place most of their similarities finish.

From eligibility necessities and prize packages to swimsuit vs. expertise competitions, listed below are all of the variations between Miss America and Miss USA.

How did the Miss America and Miss USA pageants start?

Miss America 31 years in the past Miss USA. In keeping with the Miss America web site, the primary pageant — held in September 1921 — was a part of a method to convey vacationers to the Atlantic after Labor Day. was It was received by 16-year-old Margaret Gorman, who competed as Miss Washington DC.

The pageant additionally featured a “bathing magnificence overview,” says the Miss America web site, which was “an act of riot throughout a time when girls weren’t allowed to put on swimsuits in public.”

Miss USA started due to a really completely different act of riot. In 1951, the brand new Miss America winner, Yolande Batbys, refused to be photographed in a swimsuit. Catalina, a swimwear firm sponsoring the competition, was upset with the choice – so it determined to create its personal contest.

In 1952, Jackie Loughrey was topped the primary Miss USA, and Armie Kosella from Finland grew to become the primary Miss Universe. Each Miss USA winner has gone on to compete within the Miss Universe pageant. 9 American girls have received Miss Universe since its inception – essentially the most of any nation.

What are the completely different eligibility necessities for Miss USA and Miss America?

To be eligible to compete in Miss America, contestants have to be between the ages of 18 and 28. Ladies between the ages of 14 and 17 can compete in Miss America Teen, its sister pageant.

Miss America contestants can’t be married or have kids. It is a precept that previous winners, together with Grace Stanek and Camille Schrier, have defended in interviews with Enterprise Insider.

The Miss America pageant additionally beforehand had a strict “anti-boyfriend” rule. Nevertheless, present Miss America Madison Marsh, who’s engaged, informed BI in February 2024 that the coverage had modified below CEO Robin Fleming.

“She’s saying it is a new day at Miss America, and he or she actually meant it,” Marsh mentioned. “There are a variety of outdated guidelines which might be gone, one being that you would be able to’t be engaged and be Miss America.”

Miss USA has considerably modified its eligibility guidelines over the previous two years. The pageant started permitting married girls and moms to compete in 2023, and 2024 was the primary 12 months that each one girls age 18 or older had been eligible (the earlier cutoff age was 28). Miss Teen USA is open to girls between the ages of 14 and 19.

How are Miss USA and Miss America judged?

Whereas many pageant queens compete in Miss USA and Miss America, the pageants consist of various rounds.

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Miss USA contestants are judged in three rounds: swimsuit, night robe, and interview.

All three rounds carried equal weight within the remaining rating of the primary contestants. However below the management of Lila Rose, who grew to become president and CEO in 2023, the interview now accounts for 50% of the full rating, whereas the night robe and swimsuit account for 25% every. Rose additionally determined to take away questions on politics, gender or faith from the interview spherical, a lot to the dismay of many previous candidates.

In contrast to Miss USA, Miss America has a expertise competitors. It additionally has night put on, interview, and health rounds. The pageant eliminated its swimsuit spherical in 2018, asserting that it might now not choose contestants primarily based on their “outward bodily look”.

What are the completely different awards for Miss America and Miss USA?

In keeping with its web site, Miss America was one of many first organizations within the nation to supply faculty scholarships to girls — one thing it started doing in 1945.

As a substitute of providing a scholarship, the Miss USA Group has usually paid the winner a wage for his or her year-long reign. In earlier years, the prize bundle has included an condominium in New York or Los Angeles for her time as Miss USA.

Why are Miss USA and Miss America controversial?

The Miss USA and Miss America pageants have had their share of scandals.

Sam Haskell ran the Miss America Group for 12 years earlier than stepping down in 2017 when previous Miss America winners His vulgar and offensive inside emails had been leaked to the press.

Within the 2023 A&E documentary “Secrets and techniques of Miss America,” Mallory Hagen, who received in 2013, mentioned Haskell repeatedly unfold false rumors about her intercourse life. Haskell mentioned Hagen slept with greater than 25 males in an electronic mail leaked to the Huffington Put up.

Haskell resigned from the group after the emails had been revealed. She was changed by former Fox Information host and Miss America 1989 Gretchen Carlson, who took over in early 2018. Carlson resigned in June 2019 after Cara Mund, then Miss America, spoke out in opposition to her management.

The Miss America Group can be at the moment embroiled in a authorized battle between Robin Fleming and Glenn F. Straub.

Fleming accuses Straub of defamation, defamation and trademark infringement of the Miss America model in a 32-count criticism obtained by BI. The lawsuit got here after Straub filed for chapter and informed Miss America board members that Fleming was utilizing the group’s scholarship fund to pay her authorized charges.

Within the criticism, Fleming mentioned Straub’s chapter submitting was fraudulent as a result of he doesn’t personal Miss America and has no debt owed to the group.

“I really feel very strongly that it is a case of standing up and making your voice heard,” Fleming informed BI in December.

Miss USA made headlines in October 2022 when then-president Crystal Stewart was suspended after contestants mentioned the 12 months’s pageant was rigged. The Miss Universe Group mentioned it discovered no proof of dishonest throughout its investigation, though Stewart and the group parted methods.

The pageant returned to the headlines in Could 2024 after Miss USA Noelia Voigt and Miss Ten USA Uma Sophia Srivastava relinquished their crowns. It was the primary time within the 72-year historical past of the competitors {that a} girl relinquished her title.

Each pageant queens mentioned they might not publicly share particulars on account of non-disclosure agreements that Rose signed with every contestant earlier than competing at Miss USA 2023. However their moms, Jacqueline Voigt and Barbara Srivastava, informed BI in an interview in Could that their daughters endured “eight months of torture and abuse whereas working with Rose.”

After Voigt and Srivastava relinquished their titles, Miss Colorado Ariana Lemms resigned in solidarity and Miss Ten USA first runner-up Stephanie Skinner refused to take Srivastava’s title. Paula Miles and Kimberly Good Surprise — who ran state pageants for the Miss USA Group for greater than three many years — additionally stepped down in 2024 due to Rose’s management, they informed BI. Rose didn’t reply to earlier requests for touch upon the resignations and statements by Jacqueline Voigt and Barbara Srivastava.

The Miss America 2025 pageant will probably be held on January 5. It may be streamed on the Miss America YouTube channel.