By: Jacqui Palumbo
January 6, 2025
(CNN) — A new Miss America has been crowned: Abbie Stockard, a 22-year-old Auburn University nursing student and cheerleader who was named Miss Alabama last June ahead of her senior year.
Stockard triumphed over 51 other hopefuls — one from each US state, as well as Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico — at the annual pageant in Orlando, Florida on Sunday. Annette Addo-Yobo, the first foreign-born delegate to win Miss Texas, was named runner up, with representatives from Tennessee, Florida and Ohio completing the top five.
The pageant began with contestants taking the stage in glittering gold mini dresses and black sashes before they were swiftly narrowed down to 11 finalists based on the results of preliminary events earlier in the week.
Over the course of the evening, finalists vying for the crown (and a $50,000 prize) came together for choreographed dance performances and competed in several live segments judged by former Olympic athlete Carl Lewis and cheerleader Gabi Butler of Netflix’s “Cheer,” among others.
The event included a fitness portion, which replaced swimwear in 2023, and saw contestants parade in red-and-gold athleisure two-pieces, as well as talent, eveningwear and interview rounds.
Talent performances included slam poetry (Miss Texas), clogging (Miss Oklahoma) and a jazz dance routine to Lesley Gore’s 1963 hit “You Don’t Own Me” (Miss Wisconsin). Stockard performed a contemporary dance to a song by Christian musician Lauren Daigle, then took the stage in a backless, glittering silver and white gown for her eveningwear look.
Elsewhere in the pageant, delegates answered questions on randomly assigned topics such as housing, censorship and the national debt. Stockard, when asked to comment on unemployment, spoke to the declining labor force participation rate among 25-to-54-year-olds following the Covid-19 pandemic (though the employment rate for that demographic has since increased).
“I believe we need to encourage those (people) to join the workforce, adapt to new skills and learn to grow in our current workforce and industries we have today,” she said.
Addo-Yobo, meanwhile, was asked about the topic of immigration. She spoke to her personal experiences of becoming a US citizen two years prior, telling the judges that her parents arrived in the country with “two suitcases, a few hundred dollars and a little girl, which was me, in a fur coat.”
In a video broadcast during the pageant, Stockard said she had been inspired by her mother, who she said worked multiple jobs, and her best friend, who has cystic fibrosis and was in attendance Sunday night (Stockard’s charity initiative for the pageant raised money for cystic fibrosis research).
A video posted to Miss America’s official Instagram account on Sunday evening showed Stockard reacting to her victory, saying: “This is insane. I don’t know what I did to deserve this.”
Read the article HERE: https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/06/style/miss-america-abbie-stockard-intl-hnk
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