A 17-year-old pianist from a tiny town in Nebraska was crowned the 90th Miss America on Saturday, inheriting the coveted title in an iconic but beleaguered pageant that is striving to regain its prominence.
Teresa Scanlan, the youngest ever, said her age will help the pageant regain some of its relevance in the popular culture as she travels to advocate against eating disorders.
"This just shows that no matter where you come from, you can accomplish anything you want," she said at a post-event press conference. "I'm really excited it doesn't matter how old you are and to get some new girls into the program."
Scanlan's age was clearly an issue for judges as they deliberated, and several of them referred to it.
"I have to say I was skeptical about having a 17-year-old girl as Miss America, but this is a 17-year-old woman who is very knowledgeable about current events, about pop culture, very knowledgeable about her platform," said Marc Cherry, creator of the TV show Desperate Housewives. "I was sold."
Scanlan received a diamond tiara and a $50,000 scholarship she plans to use to help pay for a law degree.
She said she hopes to be a criminal attorney and potentially an elected representative. She hails from a town of 8,000 people where she is one of seven children born to the daughter of Yugoslavian immigrants who fled the Communist takeover.
During the talent portion of the show, she played Whitewater Chopsticks on the piano, the only instrumentalist among the final 10 who performed.
In the question-and-answer portion of the competition that immediately preceded her coronation, the beauty queen was asked her opinion of how the United States should address the release of classified documents by WikiLeaks.
She was vague about what should be done but she referred to WikiLeaks' actions "espionage."
During the press conference, she said the release of thousands of cables was "a huge issue of national security. There are areas where free speech becomes a matter of national security. We have to be very careful with that."
The gleeful teen is now standard-bearer for a legendary competition that has fallen on hard times in recent years as the public became more interested in the rival Miss USA pageant.
Declining ratings had led the ABC network to dump the pageant in 2005, so it aired to much smaller ratings on pay-television networks. This year, ABC gave it another shot at a mass audience.
The Miss America Organization stresses that it hands out millions in scholarships to young American women and veers away from the sort of sordid tabloid-style controversy for which Miss USA is known.
"America loves a comeback story," said Stan Haskell, chairman of the Miss America Organization. "When you figure out how education and scholarship and talent and service are all put in the forefront, there was nothing to do but comeback."
In honor of the 90th anniversary of the pageant, 47 former Miss Americas gathered on stage before Scanlan's coronation.
The most controversial ones - 1945 winner Bess Myerson, who later was convicted of tax fraud, and 1984 winner Vanessa Williams, who was dethroned when nude photos of her emerged following her crowning - were not in attendance.
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