<ul class="summary-list"><li>Former Black beauty queens told Insider that pageant life has long been difficult for Black women. </li><li>Two former contestants said they received hate mail and death threats after their historic wins. </li></ul>When Day Gardner — the first Black woman to place as a top ten semi-finalist at the <keyword id="12375482" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="miss-america" source="Orion">Miss America</keyword> pageant in 1977 — first told her mother she wanted to get into pageantry, her mom said to expect to be called the N-word."Your mother is right. They're not going to let you win," Gardner's father explained in the early 70s, at a time when US beauty contests were "only won by white girls" and "only white girls participated in them.""He said, 'Everything your mother said is true — now let's go get your gown,' " Gardner recalled. Looking back, Gardner, now 66, told Insider, "It's hard to believe, but everything that they said happened. And that's what I didn't expect.""There were ongoing racial slurs and a number of death threats," she said, adding, "Those years were the happiest, scariest, most disturbing, most joyous, years in my life."Black former beauty queens in the US like Gardner say pageant life has long been a challenge for Black women as the pageantry world continues to reel from the <a href="https://www.insider.com/former-miss-usa-cheslie-kryst-dead-30-2022-1">recent suicide of 30-year-old former Miss USA Cheslie Kryst.</a> "The pageant itself has progressed. All of these pageants have progressed. The problem is that the rest of the world has not," Gardner said. <div type="image" title="Former Miss Delaware Day Gardner." height="2268" width="3023" msid="89309538" hostid="261"></div>When Gardner became the first Black woman to win Miss Delaware in 1976, the odds were stacked against her. "I entered the Miss America pageant system way back when it really wasn't cool to be a Black pageant girl," she said, noting, "There was no internet back then, but the backlash was extreme nonetheless."Pageant board members "were so upset" when Gardner was crowned Miss Delaware. "You're not the type of girl that we would want to represent Delaware," Gardner said she was told. Gardner recalls reading a stack of mail addressed to her in her Atlantic City hotel room before the 1977 Miss America pageant.Some letters "were well-wishers," Gardner said. "And then you got the other ones with the racial slurs."There was one "threatening letter" that warned if Gardner "dared" to get in the car and head to the Miss America pageant "I wouldn't make it to the end.""It's hard to believe they were talking about killing me because of a pageant," she said.Gardner said she only told her parents about the death threats years later. "I didn't want them to know that people would not love me, would not want me," Gardner told Insider, choking up. Detroit-native Carole Gist, 52 — who made history in 1990 by becoming the first Black woman ever to win the <keyword id="12229234" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="miss-usa" source="Orion">Miss USA</keyword> crown — had a similar experience with hate mail. "Social media wasn't around when I won, so there were letters sent and there were calls made, but I was shielded from it," Gist told Insider. "I had death threats, they just didn't tell me about it.""I thought the security was just regular," she said. Gist only later found out about the extent of the racist backlash. "I just chose to focus on those who were open and I tried to turn a blind eye to the negative people," she said. "I chose not to give them the power to make me operate in fear or be anything other than my authentic self."<div type="image" title="Former Miss USA Carole Gist." height="1493" width="1991" msid="89309539" hostid="261"></div>The former Miss Michigan recalled that a man in a crowd once called out a "racial slur" as he shouted she was not the "ideal" image of beauty. Racism "was there," said Gist. "I just chose to not let it get under my skin. And I'm grateful that I didn't have social media, because I don't know how the women after who did could endure if they got it bad."In an <a href="https://www.allure.com/story/cheslie-kryst-miss-usa-on-turning-30">essay last year for Allure</a>, Kryst — who authorities say died by <keyword id="11898483" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="suicide" source="Orion">suicide</keyword> on Sunday — <a href="https://www.insider.com/cheslie-kryst-death-former-miss-usa-penned-essay-last-year-2022-1">detailed being the target of internet trolls</a> who ridiculed her looks as she got older. "Pageant girls are supposed to be model-tall and slender, don bouffant hair, and have a killer walk," wrote Kryst, a lawyer and Emmy-nominated TV reporter who won the Miss USA title in 2019. "But my five-foot-six frame won with six-pack abs, earned after years of competing in Division I Track and Field, and a head of natural curls in a time when generations of Black women have been taught that being 'too Black' would cost them wins in the boardroom and on pageant stages," she said. Kryst, added, "My challenge of the status quo certainly caught the attention of the trolls, and I can't tell you how many times I have deleted comments on my social media pages that had vomit emojis and insults telling me I wasn't pretty enough to be Miss USA or that my muscular build was actually a 'man body.'"Gist told Insider that she understands what Kryst was dealing with."I didn't feel comfortable wearing my hair any other way that I had to straighten it," she said. "I love wearing my hair natural. But I only felt like I would be accepted or looked at as glamorous in that arena if I did that to my hair — like I didn't have a choice."<div type="image" title="Cheslie Kryst." height="3601" width="4802" msid="89309541" hostid="261"></div>When she found out about Kryst's death, Gist, who connected with Kryst at past pageants, said she was in "disbelief.""A lot of my sister queens, we've all had our bout of depression after giving up the crown in various ways," Gist said, adding, "I know I went through it."Gist said young Black women who are entering the world of pageantry today should "be you.""Do you, you know? Just go and represent yourself to the best of your ability," she said. "You don't have to change to be anybody else's standard."

After Cheslie Kryst's death, former beauty queens say pageant life has long been a challenge for Black women

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Almost half of the contestants at this year's Miss <keyword id="3746" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Mexico">Mexico</keyword> pageant tested positive for the <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus">coronavirus</keyword>. </li><li>But organizers moved forward with the contest despite many of them showing symptoms, reports said. </li><li>Beauty pageant-goers from 14 of Mexico's 32 states in last week's contest in the northern city of Chihuahua contracted COVID-19.</li></ul>Nearly half of the contestants at this year's Miss Mexico pageant tested positive for the coronavirus - but organizers moved forward with the contest despite many of them showing symptoms, reports said. "Even though many [of the contestants] were coughing, had body aches and even a temperature, they asked them not to complain," a source from the pageant told the local newspaper Reforma, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/07/miss-mexico-2021-organisers-press-ahead-with-pageant-despite-covid-surge-among-contestants">The Guardian reported</a>. Beauty pageant-goers from 14 of Mexico's 32 states in last week's contest in the northern city of Chihuahua wound up contracting COVID-19, a local health official said Tuesday, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/caribbean-mexico-coronavirus-pandemic-entertainment-health-db221a4dbcc3fa230890d36095c65087">according to the Associated Press</a>. All contestants in the pageant had submitted negative tests for the virus before the contest began, State Health Secretary Eduardo Fernández Herrera told local media, the Associated Press reported. However, authorities were tipped off that one person was infected with the coronavirus, the <keyword id="6355005" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="news">news</keyword> outlet said. Almost half of the contestants in the Miss Mexico 2021 pageant ultimately tested positive for the virus, along with a staff member, reports said. The pageant ended early on Saturday after the COVID-19 test results came back positive, according to the Associated Press. Before the beauty pageant, contestants visited a school in northern Mexico's Copper Canyon, The Guardian reported. According to the news outlet, a source told Reforma that "a minimum 10 [contestants] had symptoms" on that trip.

Nearly half of Miss Mexico 2021 contestants test positive for COVID-19

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Pushpika De Silva was crowned Mrs. <keyword id="6355572" type="LOCATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="sri-lanka">Sri Lanka</keyword> on Sunday.</li><li>Moments later, the 2019 winner, Caroline Jurie, took the crown from De Silva's head.</li><li>De Silva said her head was injured.</li></ul>A <a href="https://www.insider.com/beauty-pageant-scandals-2018-9">beauty-pageant</a> winner says she was injured when her crown was forcefully removed from her head.Pushpika De Silva was crowned Mrs. Sri Lanka on Sunday. Moments later, the 2019 pageant winner and current Mrs. World, Caroline Jurie, said De Silva was divorced and therefore ineligible.A <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5rTt60PT90">video of the ceremony</a>, held at Nelum Pokuna Mahinda Rajapaksa Theatre in Colombo, shows Jurie taking De Silva's crown and placing it on the runner-up's head.<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/S5rTt60PT90" frameborder="0"></iframe>"There is a rule that you have to be married and not divorced, so I am taking my first steps in saying that the crown goes to the first runner-up," Jurie said in the video.The <a href="https://ceylontoday.lk/news/pushpika-de-silva-to-be-recrowned">pageant's rules</a> say that contestants must be married and above the age of 18.De Silva said in a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pushpika.desilva.18/posts/246198313855658">Facebook post</a> in Sinhala after the ceremony that her son had noticed that her head was injured."The pain of my skull when my crown was snatched from my head by the world married <keyword id="6354629" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="beauty">beauty</keyword> queen, the pain I felt when I lost the crown is more than both. '... Mother's head is injured right..? Does it hurt mom?' I can't bear the pain I feel when my son listens," she wrote.De Silva added that she is not divorced. "If I was a divorcée, I would dare them to submit my divorce script," she said.The national director of Mrs. Sri Lanka World, Chandimal Jayasinghe, has said the crown will be returned to De Silva. He added that she was eligible because, while she is separated from her husband, she is not divorced."Only an individual who is legally divorced will not be allowed to compete in the pageant," <a href="https://ceylontoday.lk/news/pushpika-de-silva-to-be-recrowned">Jayasinghe told Ceylon Today</a>, an English-language newspaper in Sri Lanka, on Monday. "Pushpika may be in the process of a divorce, however, until a legal judgment is given on the matter, she is still considered a married woman, therefore we cannot comment any further on the matter.""We are disappointed," <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56648049">he told BBC News</a>. "It was a disgrace how Caroline Jurie behaved on the stage and the Mrs. World organization has already begun an investigation on the matter."In a press conference after the ceremony, De Silva <a href="https://pop.inquirer.net/108282/mrs-sri-lanka-2021-was-stripped-of-her-crown-on-live-television">reportedly said</a>, "There are a lot of single moms like me today who are suffering in Sri Lanka," adding, "This crown is dedicated to those women, those single mums who are suffering to raise their kids alone.""I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to all of you who supported me," De Silva <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pushpika.desilva.18/posts/247351743740315">wrote on Facebook</a> on Tuesday. "I don't hate anyone and I've forgiven those who did that to me at the same moment. Nothing can be won by hate."Jurie has remained silent. But sources close to her <a href="https://colombogazette.com/2021/04/07/caroline-jurie-to-break-her-silence-over-sundays-incident/">told the Colombo Gazette</a> that she was expected to hold a press conference on Thursday.De Silva, Jurie, and Jayasinghe did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Mrs. Sri Lanka beauty-pageant winner says her head was injured when a former contestant took her crown from her

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/577566f84321f136158b53b2-2400/gettyimages-487963902.jpg" alt="miss teen USA" data-mce-source="Getty Images" data-mce-caption="Miss Teen USA Katherine Haik." />Getty ImagesMiss Teen USA Katherine Haik.</div></div></div>Miss Teen USA is no longer having a swimwear competition.The news, first reported by <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/entertainthis/2016/06/29/miss-teen-usa-to-eliminate-swimsuit-competition/86502942/?hootPostID=374ba4aff23a763f44679cce0a52fe62" target="_blank">USA Today</a>, marks an unprecedented move. USA Today notes parent company Miss Universe is aiming to shift its brand image following <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-sells-miss-universe-img-2015-9" target="_blank">WME/IMG's purchase of the company from Donald Trump</a>.But swimsuit competitions have long been a part of beauty pageants, and one contestant slammed the show's decision to nix it.2010 Miss Teen USA winner Kamie Crawford told <a href="http://www.thisisinsider.com/past-miss-teen-usa-winner-kamie-crawford-hates-elimination-of-swimsuit-competition-2016-6" target="_blank">Insider</a> that she was upset because it was a "part of tradition.""Removing it is sending a message that something is wrong with it, and there's nothing wrong with it," she said to Insider.But it appears that a lot of consumers today might not agree with that statement. Aside from the fact grown adults judging the bodies of girls ages 14-19 in bikinis is downright weird and unnerving, the decision to eliminate swimwear is indicative of just how much Americans' values are shifting. Wellness is a much more important priority now.As further proof, Miss Universe president Paula Shugart said that the reason to ditch the category was to "celebrate women's strength, confidence and beauty" in a better way, according to USA Today."This decision reflects an important cultural shift we're all celebrating that empowers women who lead active, purposeful lives and encourage those in their communities to do the same," USA Today notes she wrote. "Our hope is that this decision will help all of Miss Teen USA's fans recognize these young women for the strong, inspiring individuals they are."<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/56df0c3f52bcd028008b4df7-2400/aerie iskra ss16 4.jpg" alt="Aerie Iskra Lawrence" data-mce-source="Aerie" />AerieAerie has sent waves of body positivity throughout the teen apparel industry.</div></div></div>After all, teens today no longer feel the pressure to whittle their waists to get so-called "bikini bodies." Companies like <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/american-eagles-aerie-sales-2016-5" target="_blank">Aerie with its unphotoshopped #AerieREAL</a> campaign have encouraged teens to celebrate their bodies as they are. There's an often-cited platitude nowadays that says that you can attain a bikini body in two steps: 1) have a body, 2) put on a bikini. The implied emphasis is twofold: beauty comes in all shapes and sizes, and true beauty comes from within.Of course, "what's inside" has never really been the heart of beauty pageants. Sure, there's a desire to focus on education and bolstering women (as <a href="http://missamericafoundation.org/education-mission/" target="_blank">Miss America</a> aims to do, for example) but at the end of the day, it's still called a "beauty pageant." And if we wanted to really talk about groundbreaking shifts, we'd be seeing a bigger variety of body types on the pageant stage - which isn't what's happening here.What is happening here is that rather than just eliminating this component of the competition, it's replacing it with an activewear section. After all, if Miss Teen USA isn't showing off women frolicking in bikinis, it can sell a different point of view that jibes with contemporary women's values: strength, power, and wellness.As <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/acceptance-is-killing-the-diet-business-2016-2" target="_blank">I've written before</a>, the dieting industry has experienced a massive shift as consumers focus on wellness rather than thinness. As a result, many traditional "dieting" companies have seen sales suffer - people want healthy food (think: avocados, olive oil) and not processed snack replacements. But in turn, people are exercising more than ever, because the goal is to achieve health.And along with that focus on wellness, we've seen activewear become <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/people-will-pay-more-for-athleisure-apparel-2016-6" target="_blank">one of the only sectors of the apparel </a>industry to thrive (even if that's not that much of a compliment given how poorly the apparel industry as a whole is doing).<a href="http://news.morningstar.com/articlenet/article.aspx?id=757735" target="_blank"> Morningstar</a> analyst Bridget Weishaar recently wrote that one of the reasons activewear companies have convinced consumers to pay a premium for products is because in order to fulfill certain <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/changes-in-the-fitness-world-2016-6" target="_blank">experiential activities (like a workout class)</a>, they need the apparel to do so."This fits with our belief that consumers now value experience over material goods, as performance-based apparel is used in activities," she wrote. Activewear is so profitable, that Victoria's Secret has decided to<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-victorias-secret-dropped-swimwear-2016-4" target="_blank"> totally ax its swimwear sector</a>. In addition to turning the company into three core categories (lingerie, beauty, and its younger sister brand, Pink), it's planning to zero in on its activewear sector.Analyst and founder of consulting firm A-Line Partners, Gabriella Santaniello, explained to Business Insider in April how eschewing swimwear for activewear was a smart marketing move."It's about not only being sexy, but being fit [and] strong .... Focusing on the athletic wear is a better fit for the total brand and their 360 vision of the brand than swim," Santaniello said at the time.It appears that Miss Teen USA is trying to send a similar message.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/56c494992e5265b6008b7a87-2400/gettyimages-503853284.jpg" alt="Elsa Hosk" data-mce-source="Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images" />Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty ImagesVictoria's Secret is focusing on activewear.</div></div></div>But make no mistake: it's also a savvy business move. Victoria's Secret's decision to switch gears means the company is betting on the fact that American consumers are putting their dollars into that market.If American consumers are putting their money into activewear, then it makes sense for a pageant to show that, too. But perhaps more notably, it shows that activewear may very well be the new swimwear: though people will always need bikinis, it might be more attractive to show off one's health by exercising and taking action.And it's a business move for Miss Teen USA, too."If they are looking to expand this is a very shrewd move. It's consistent with the overall brand and message the new owners are talking about," pagaent coach Valerie Hayes said to USA Today. "I think that it will cause more parents to be open to their daughters competing in a state or local Teen Miss USA pageant, because it's been a concern of parents in the past." <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/miss-usa-shares-her-secrets-to-success-2013-6">Miss USA Explains How Working As An Accountant Prepared Her For Beauty Pageants</a></h3> <div> <div> <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="poaDRzYzr8NmUPoZCXwaRFC5KEHfPrlQ" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> <script> if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; } RunFunctions.push(function() { var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'poaDRzYzr8NmUPoZCXwaRFC5KEHfPrlQ',{ autoplay: 'false' }); }); </script> <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div> </div> <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script> </div>

You Searched For "beauty pagaent" and got 4 results

After Cheslie Kryst's death, former beauty queens say pageant life has long been a challenge for Black women

Natalie Musumeci

Nearly half of Miss Mexico 2021 contestants test positive for COVID-19

Natalie Musumeci

Mrs. Sri Lanka beauty-pageant winner says her head was injured when a former contestant took her crown from her

Mikhaila Friel

The Miss Teen USA pageant just proved how much American values are shifting

Mallory Schlossberg