She's the second consecutive New York beauty queen to take
the Miss America title, but she's the first Indian-American to wear the
national crown -- er, tiara -- atop her perfectly coiffed head.
"I was the first Indian Miss New York, and I'm so proud to be
the first Indian Miss America," Nina Davuluri said after she won.
The 24-year-old Fayetteville, New York, native was on the dean's
list and earned the Michigan Merit Award and National Honor Society nods while
studying at the University of Michigan, where she graduated with a degree in
brain behavior and cognitive science.
Her father, who emigrated from India 30 years ago, is a
gynecologist, and Davuluri said she'd like to become a physician one day as
well.
"During her year as Miss America she will serve as
spokesperson for STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) this
year as she travels to Washington, D.C., to work with the Department of
Education," according to a Miss America statement.
She also is passionate about healthy lifestyles after battling
obesity and bulimia when she was younger.
Davuluri's platform was "Celebrating Diversity Through
Cultural Competency." For the talent portion of the competition, she
performed classic Indian dances fused with Bollywood moves.
She has studied the Kuchipudi and Bharatanatyam styles of dance,
and in preparation for the Miss America contest,
she worked with famed Bollywood choreographer Nakul Dev Mahajan.
Miss California Crystal Lee was first runner-up, and Miss Oklahoma
Kelsey Griswold was second runner-up, while Theresa Vail, thetattooed, bow-hunting, Chinese-speaking Miss Kansas, won the
online viewers' poll.
Despite a night of firsts, a tired theme emerged following
Davuluri's victory: Racists took to Twitter to lambaste the pageant for picking
an Indian-American. They were none too kind to Davuluri herself, either, with
one particularly uninformed tweeter calling her a Muslim.
Something similar happened when Rima Fakih was crowned Miss USA in 2010. Fakih is of Lebanese descent, and
many were quick to try to link her to the militant group Hezbollah.
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