Pageant Reporting

I started covering pageantry with admittedly little prior knowledge in 2024, when influencer Hannah Neeleman of Ballerina Farm crowned her successor at the Mrs. American pageant for married women. On the ground in Las Vegas, I embarked on a beat that nows spans several circuits — including Miss America, Miss USA, Miss World, Mrs. America/American and Miss Universe, among even more — and the unyielding state of controversy that seems to embroil so many of these organizations and contestants.