Regan Hutsell opens up about learning to celebrate the body she once “absolutely hated” — and why she chose not to change her natural curls while competing for the crown.
By Taryn Rider, Yahoo Life
September 9, 2026
Before Regan Hutsell became Miss America, she had to decide whether entering a pageant was worth the risk.
Hutsell, a professional dancer who has been open about recovering from an eating disorder, knew what it felt like to have her body scrutinized. Would competing for a crown simply give people another opportunity to judge it?
“I remember thinking, ‘Do I want to fall in love with something that could potentially have one more element or avenue to where people might be looking at my body or scrutinizing it the way that dance did?'” Hutsell tells Yahoo two days after winning the Miss America 2027 title.
Ultimately, Hutsell decided fear would not make the choice for her. On Sept. 6, the 25-year-old Houston native became the 99th Miss America — and the first Miss Texas to win the national title in more than 50 years.
It was a remarkable conclusion to a pageant career that had barely begun, as this was only Hutsell’s third competition. Before entering that world, she had already built a formidable résumé as a dancer: She became a Radio City Rockette at 18, then moved to England at 20 and joined the Birmingham Royal Ballet.
Although Hutsell was a pageant newcomer, the dream had been quietly lingering since childhood. At age 8, she spotted portraits of pageant winners while having her dance headshots taken.
“I remember thinking, ‘I don’t know what that is, but one day I want to be a part of it,'” she recalls.
She put that idea aside while pursuing dance. Then last year, watching Miss America from her couch, she wondered whether she might ever reach that stage herself. Once she decided to try, her biggest concern was whether the competition would be compatible with the recovery she had worked so hard to protect.
Hutsell said the Miss America Fit initiative’s emphasis on a healthy and active lifestyle helped ease that fear. She also had to trust that her relationship with her body had fundamentally changed.
“I couldn’t let the opportunity of that fear creeping in hinder what this potential journey could be,” she says. Rather than viewing preparation as punishment, Hutsell began framing it as a privilege.
“Even training for the pageant, [I was] doing it from a place of, ‘I get to do this. I get to honor, I get to celebrate my body. I get to stand onstage proud of something that I used to absolutely hate,'” she says. “It was a moment for me that made my recovery real.”
That evolution became the foundation of Hutsell’s community service initiative, “Your Body Is Your Home,” which promotes physical and mental well-being and positive self-talk. When speaking with children, she carries a toolbox of objects that illustrate different strategies: A hammer represents shattering negative beliefs, while a measuring tape serves as a reminder to measure personal growth rather than compare oneself to others.
Hutsell’s message of embracing herself also shaped another significant decision: She would compete wearing her natural curls.
Initially, she wondered whether she should straighten her hair or add extensions. She had straightened it on a whim several years earlier, only to discover that a section would no longer curl afterward.
“It freaked me out,” she says. “I’ve worked so hard to get my beautiful curls to a point where they’re doing their thing, and now I’ve damaged my hair.”
She realized that repeatedly straightening it would cause more damage — and, more importantly, that her curls are part of what makes her who she is.
“I feel and look more like myself when I have my curls, and I’m just going to have to own them,” she says.
Hutsell became the first woman of color crowned Miss America while wearing her natural hair, according to the organization.
The history carries particular meaning for Hutsell, who says she was told as a child that her natural hair made her “look like a boy” or needed to be styled differently to be considered beautiful.
“I had to define that beauty for myself,” she says.
While serving as Miss Texas, Hutsell experienced a moment that affirmed her choice. During a trip to Philadelphia with the Miss America class, a little girl stopped her on the street and told her, “Your hair is so beautiful.”
“A moment like that made me realize this is all worth it,” Hutsell says. “It’s about having a little girl look at you on the street and see the fact that [she feels] like [she’s] beautiful because you represent something that they can connect with.”
“Now I sit here with the Miss America crown on my head, knowing that it’s more than just a crown, but it’s connection and inspiration for the next generation as well,” she adds.
Hutsell is the 10th Black woman to hold the Miss America title. She hopes young girls who see her wearing the crown recognize more than her individual victory.
“It just further emphasizes that anybody in America can do this,” she says. “It goes to show you that beauty is seen in so many different forms.”
The moment also carried significance for Texas. The state had not produced a winner since Shirley Cothran was crowned in 1975, despite Miss Texas finishing as first runner-up in each of the previous three competitions.
Hutsell says the women who preceded her supported her, but she tried not to carry their results as pressure. Her parents taught her to let other people’s stories inspire her “without feeling like the burden of responsibility.”
When her own name was finally called, Hutsell thought about how quickly an improbable dream had materialized.
“There I was, sitting in the final two with an incredible Shelby Bordelon, Miss Louisiana, and then I hear my name being called,” she says. “It was crazy … this [dream] has actually come true.”
Now Hutsell wants her unconventional path to challenge another misconception: that a woman must spend her life preparing for pageants to belong on the Miss America stage.
“You don’t have to have everything figured out to enter into it,” she says. “You just have to be willing to say yes.”
Read the article here: https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/article/she-worried-beauty-pageants-would-threaten-her-eating-disorder-recovery-now-shes-miss-america-210907817.html