The newest Miss America is thrilled the pageant ditched its swimsuit competition
- Miss Alaska Emma Broyles was crowned the 100th Miss America on Thursday.
- She told Insider Miss America's removal of the swimsuit competition was a "good move."
The newest Miss America Emma Broyles told Insider she thinks the pageant's decision to remove the swimsuit competition was a "good move."
Broyles, 19, is the first Miss Alaska and first Korean-American contestant to be crowned Miss America. The pageant was filmed in Uncasville, Connecticut, and it aired on Peacock on Thursday.
Broyles did not have to model evening wear or a swimsuit to get the crown, as Miss Americas have in the past. The organization removed the swimsuit portion of its competition in 2018 — a move Broyles approves of.
"I think that it definitely was frustrating," Broyles told Insider of the swimsuit competition."Women's value should never be placed in their appearance."
"Women historically have been looked at as objects," she went on to say. "It's frustrating, and it's definitely frustrating as a young woman growing up in America."
"But I think that putting the emphasis on the fact that women have so much more to offer is what the Miss America organization does," Broyles added, pointing to the fact that the 2022 competition focused on the contestants' social initiatives and interview questions.
"We don't have to put on a swimsuit to get people to listen to us," Broyles said of Miss America contestants.
"We don't have to wear a ton of makeup or a fancy dress to have people listen because truthfully it doesn't matter," she added. "What really matters is what we have to say and what we want to do and what change we want to make in the world."
Broyles studies biomedical science and voice performance at the Barrett Honors College at Arizona State University.
She placed first in the pageant after advocating for her social initiative, the Special Olympics, and talking about her desire to make Miss America more transparent during the competition.
"I want to show people that I'm just like everybody else," she said.