In May of 2024, both Miss USA, Noelia Voigt, and Miss Teen USA, UmaSofia Srivastava, resigned from their national positions within days of each other. Voigt explained that her stepping down is due to protecting her mental health, while Srivastava says her “personal values no longer fully align with the direction of the organization,” in an Instagram post.
While they had different reasoning, many are questioning if it is true and if they are aligned with one another.
Prior to the resignations, the social media director of the Miss USA organization stepped down from her role. She made a statement on Instagram that claimed, “I feel the way current management speaks about their titleholders is unprofessional and inappropriate…I disavow workplace toxicity and bullying of any kind.”
Then, following up on the newly renounced pageant winners, their parents gave some insight on their daughter’s choices to ‘Good Morning America.’ “I want to make [it] clear, it’s not about what they can get, the prizes…it’s about how they were ill-treated, abused, bullied, cornered…the job of their dreams turned out to be a nightmare.”
This brief explanation checks out Voigt’s and Srivastava’s descriptions. Quality mental health and protecting values of personal belief and opinion, both diminished by the pageant system. It has led to many questions about how reliable and trustworthy the Miss USA and Miss Teen USA organizations are.
I, being one of the viewers with lots of confusion, reached out to Norah Lipovac, the first runner up in NAM Teen Division and title holder of Miss Des Moines in Iowa.
When asked her thoughts on the matter, she said, “As a pageant competitor myself I understand. From what I’ve heard they left because of the organizations leadership and that’s 100% fair. There are thousands of pageant systems and who runs them makes a big difference in the environment that its queens work in. I think they made the best call for themselves and that’s it’s a sign that there is a need for change within that system.”
Her remarks point to the majority opinion that the system’s operators might be the cause of careless treatment towards pageant competitors and winners. Are Miss USA and Miss Teen USA the first to step up to make a call for change? Will the change happen? Or will the system continue to take over.
