On July 30, Miss Texas, Karlie Hay was crowned Miss Teen USA in Las Vegas, and while the 18-year-old wept tears of joy, Twitter seemed to be crying for a whole different reason. Only one day after the pageant, viewers took to Twitter to express their disappointment with the lack of diversity in the pageant’s top five contestants.
“Wow how can we choose from such a diverse bunch,” Chrissy Teigen sounded off on Twitter, with an image of the final pageant queens. The photo, which incited negative backlash, showed the five ladies – Miss North Carolina, Nevada, Texas, Alabama, and South Carolina – all of which were Caucasian and blonde.
“Literally all of Miss Teen USA top 5 were white, blonde, and light eyes. Watching it last night I was like bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye,” another viewer tweeted. “It really pisses me off that apparently you have to all look like a blonde barbie to be Miss Teen USA good job US,” another chimed in.” And so it continued.
While the lack of diversity across all major industries is nothing new, it is a little shocking the beauty pageant didn’t pay closer attention to properly representing a broader demographic in its teen edition, especially after crowning Miss District of Columbia, an African-American military vet, as Miss USA only months before.
Miss Teen USA officials have yet to make a statement in regards to the issue. Do better. Check out some of the tweets below.
Wow how can we choose from such a diverse bunch https://t.co/0a4JHbP465
— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) July 31, 2016
Literally all of Miss Teen USA top 5 were white, blonde, and light eyes. Watching it last night I was like bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye
— keke (@JoelMaraj) July 31, 2016
It really pisses me off that apparently you have to all look like a blonde barbie to be Miss Teen USA good job US https://t.co/WxZUOuSKcL
— Linds (@lindskloost) July 31, 2016
wonderin where the POC miss teen usa contestants are and then I remembered we live in a society where white features are glorified
— skeeter (@electrafart69) July 31, 2016
Miss teen USA is laughable basically the same girl ….It’s 2016, Give teen girls diverse role models please .tut pic.twitter.com/yDEbKKrQoE
— Lisa G (@Lisagreenwood20) July 31, 2016