Miss America Is Scrapping Its Swimsuit Competition, Ushering In New Era

Miss America is no longer a “beauty pageant.”

The organization is axing its swimsuit and evening gown portions — and Cara Mund is the last Miss America to have competed in the swimsuit portion of the competition.

“I have yet to wear a swimsuit while I’ve been Miss America, other than the night that I won,” she said. “And so, why are we evaluating the candidates based on that? Because that’s not what their job entails.”

Gretchen Carlson, the Miss America Organization’s new top leader announced the swimsuit and evening gown portions will be replaced with live interviews with the judges about contestant’s passions, intelligence, and goals as Miss America.

“What many people don’t realize is that all the candidates, prior to this, we had platforms. My personal platform was the Make-A-Wish Foundation. And the audience never found that out,” explained Mund. “They didn’t know that I had been involved for 10 years with Make-A-Wish. They didn’t know that I’ve raised over $80,000 for the organization. Well, now they will.”

Miss America has been going through a huge revamp since getting rid of its former male board leaders who mistreated and degraded women in emails. Now they have an all-woman leadership, many of whom are also former Miss America winners.