Miss Michigan wins Miss America

[gasperc]

Yeah, I know us liberals aren't supposed to be into these exploitation contests but I think it's pretty cool that Ms. Haglund won the Miss America contest and will also be a spokesperson for women with eating disorder's.

From the AP newswire:
To win her crown, the Farmington Hills, Mich., native sang "Over the Rainbow" and walked a crowd-pleasing strut in a black and gold bikini to clinch the title.

"You have to have curves," she said proudly. "You can't look like a stick-thin model."

The aspiring Broadway star even ate the silver medallion chocolates left on her pillow in her suite at the host site, the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino.

"Yes, oh my gosh, yes," she said. "I love chocolate. Chocolates are a girl's best friend."

The 5-foot 8-inch blonde said she doesn't disclose her weight to avoid setting standards for youths obsessed with getting lighter.

She said she stopped pursuing her dream to become a professional ballerina to escape an environment in which she was rewarded for being slim and an industry that Haglund said sweeps concerns about eating disorders under the rug.

The National Eating Disorders Association estimates eating disorders affect 10 million girls and women and about 1 million boys and men in the United States.

Haglund's job begins right away, and on Sunday she caught a plane to New York for a Monday interview on "Live With Regis and Kelly."

While the teen said she wasn't about to "let myself go," she didn't plan to skip any meals over her crowning year.

"I'm going to enjoy my food," she said.

[SharonRB]

1. I thought it was pretty cool, too

I didn't even know they moved the contest from September to January.

[maddogesq]

2. She is from a home not far from me.

She went to Walled Lake Western, in the school district I live in. I am not sure what to think, other than maybe it will take some of the bad spotlight off the Kwame thing, even though most of the political planet is looking at the Kennedy endorsements of Obama today.

[GigiMommy]

3. Yay! Farmington Hills! Yay! Michigan!

Where CUTE girls are from!

[erinlough]

4. Your baby is just beautiful. n/t

[GigiMommy]

5. Thank you! n/t

[ManiFesto]

6. Who?

I thought Nancy Skinner won DFA.