Making a Michigan left on Grand River yesterday, on the southerly side of Farmington Hills, I saw a Welcome to Farmington Hills sign that said: “Welcome to Farmington Hills: Home of Kirsten Haglund, Miss America 2008.”

I had no idea Farmington Hills was home to any Miss Americas.  I do not watch or care about beauty pageants, but as a little girl, I always rooted for Miss Michigan, whomever I thought had the best evening gown, and Miss Hawaii (who was usually exotic).

Haglund is probably now the second most famous resident of Farmington Hills, although her legacy is probably far more fleeting than that of our hometown hero, and one of my favorite TV characters ever …

Jessie Spano.

The 2008 ‘Miss America,’ Kirsten Haglund, visited campus on Tuesday to meet students and give a speech about eating disorders. Seeing as a photo of Miss America isn’t difficult to find and she’s a familiar face, I wanted to try to get a shot focusing on the people who met her.

From left, Courtney, Alicia and Tessa talk to Ms. Haglund after receiving autographs from her.

I read a post today, Lessons from Miss America, by a young woman, Sarah Delia, a senior at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.  She is an English and History major and programming director for the campus radio station WXJM. 

She had interviewed Kirsten Haglund, Miss America 2008 and discovered that her stereotype of a ”beauty queen”  did not hold true.  Sarah realized that her mindset – judging Kirsten by preconceived  notions of pageant participants - “was about as unfeminist as you could get.”  Sarah was and is not alone in her misinformed perceptions.  But now, meeting a flesh and blood woman who has dreams, has faced down difficult issues and who is not full of herself, Sarah has come to see that there is so much more to the women who become Miss America than just a pretty face.

Like Sarah, I didn’t know what to expect when I started out interviewing twenty-two former Miss Americas for my book, Pretty Smart: Lessons from our Miss Americas.  I found, just as she did, that these women turn out to be not just pretty, but pretty smart.  In person, they shatter the “it’s only a beauty contest” perception with their intelligence, thoughfulness, poise and eloquence.

Many people don’t see beyond the swimsuit competition.  They think that you can’t be beautiful and smart.  This complicated mix of beauty and brains has always been a contradiction in American society, which often dismisses the possibility of being both.

In fact, contrary to popular opinion, the Miss America Organization had a liberal feminist agenda years before Betty Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique in 1963, promoting higher education for women starting in the 1940s when women in aprons were more the norm than women in business suits.

I applaud Sarah for being willing to admit her own now debunked stereotype of who these women really are.  Kirsten isn’t an anomaly.  Her down to earth and gracious demeanor is representative of all the women I talked with.  My interviews like hers, turned into deeply felt conversations between two women.  Then I became a fan too.

Katie Stam, Miss Indiana, has been selected as Miss America, 2009.

From the Associated Press:

While accepting her new position from host Mario Lopez and Miss America 2008 Kirsten Haglund of Michigan, Stam shared her glory with fellow contestants. “I’m gonna thank all these amazing girls behind me — I love them all so much,” she said.

“That beauty that you feel on the inside, it’s that confidence, that radiance inside of you, that’s what glamour is,” Stam said.

Stam won a $50,000 scholarship and hopes to obtain a bachelor’s degree in communications and become a television news anchor. She began competing in pageants at age 15.

Label : kirsten haglund

Kirsten Haglund – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jan 26, 2008 … Kirsten Haglund (born September 14, 1988) is a beauty queen from Farmington Hills, Michigan who is Miss America 2008. …

Body Image Series: Kirsten Haglund’s Anorexia Battle | Videos …
Access Hollywood – Video – She’s competing for the title of Miss America today, but just four years ago, Kirsten Haglund, Miss Michigan, battled anorexia.

Kirsten Haglund Photo – The Hollywood Gossip
Kirsten Haglund is Miss America 2008. Don’t you just love this young cutie? We have developed a new respect for Michigan for cranking out this …

Miss Michigan Kirsten Haglund Wins Miss America Pageant 2008 …
Click for Kirsten Haglund photos This year I decided that I wouldn’t predict the winner of Miss America pageant in the days leading up to the pageant …

I had the pleasure this weekend to hang out with a legacy of Miss Michigan’s and the new Miss America, Miss Michigan, Kirsten Haglund.

It was a unique and inspiring experience, because people flocked to Muskegon, Mich. to celebrate with one young woman, only nineteen, and her family for winning such a coveted award.

From left to right: back row: Stacy Essebaggers, Laura Welling, Kaye Lani Rae Rafko, Audrie Chernauckas, Kelli Talicska, Stacey Heisler, front row: Angela Corsi, me, Kirsten Haglund, Gina Valo, Kelly Garver, Madonna Emond.

It has been exactly twenty years since Michigan has claimed the Miss America title, and we all gathered in excitement to extend our congratulations to the winners—each other. It was a night not just for Kirsten and her family, but for her town, her high school, her local pageant, her friends, and young women across the state and nation who now idolize her and look to her as an inspiration and example.

She is truly talented, an accomplished singer and dancer, headed, she said for Broadway. She and her brother Lars performed together that night, bringing everyone to tears as they dedicated their duet to Miracle Children, small innocent angels suffering with terminal illnesses.

While my personal experience as Miss Michigan was neither, easy nor breezy, I am honored to have been a part of such a meaningful organization that continues to touch lives throughout the country.

Dear Miss America 2008 aka Kirsten Haglund,

It’s not the copious amounts of Vaseline on your teeth…

It’s not your tornado-proof hair…

It’s your talent. Yes, your talent. That’s great you can sing…but of all songs, “Somewhere Over The Rainbow?” As though pageants and heavy emphasis on world peace isn’t corny enough (we all remember Miss South Carolina Teen USA from last year), you have to sing perhaps the cheesiest song of all time?

Throw a cynical gal a bone: give me the violin, give me a magic trick, but pleaseohplease do not give me Judy Garland. That is of course unless you belt it out while strumming the ukulele, clicking your glittery red heels twice and give Toto a bath.

Sincerely,

Sickened in Seattle.

P.S. I hated your dress.