Our new Miss America is here! After an intense competition that began with 52 gorgeous ladies but the new Miss America 2016 officially took the crown from the 2015 champion, Kira Kazantsev. Find out who won!
And your winner is — Miss Georiga, Betty Cantrell! Even though she tripped and seemed to freeze up a bit during the Q&A section, Betty totally owned it in the talent portion of the competition. And, let’s face it — she’s gorgeous. And the rest of the finalists were as follows: Fourth runner-up, Miss Alabama. Third runner-up, Miss Louisiana. Second runner-up Miss Colorado and runner-up Miss Mississippi. Congratulations to all the contestants!
Celebrity judges Vanessa Williams, Brett Eldredge, Taya Kyle, Danica McKellar, Kevin O’Leary, Amy Purdy and Zendaya were all on a panel that helped make the final decision — and we couldn’t agree more with their decision. Betty worked so hard and nailed every aspect of the competition, making her the all-around right choice.
Although Kira was obviously quite sad to give up her title, she proudly smiled while putting the crown on Betty’s head. We actually caught up with the 2015 champ before the pageant, and she revealed what hardships her successor might have to deal with in the spotlight.
“We definitely face a lot of social media scrutiny,” Kira told DGossip247 “It can be challenging when people talk about you and put things on the Internet, and I get direct tweets that say really awful things sometimes. And it can be really hard, so you kind of just have to let it roll off your shoulder and not think twice about it. So you have to grow a thick skin pretty quickly.” She also warned that the year after being crowned Miss America “can be the most challenging year in the world, but it’s also the most rewarding year of your life.” Are you listening, Betty?!
