Miss United States is a pageant held in the United States for unmarried women between the ages of 20 and 29. The pageant includes women selected to represent all 50 states, District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The Miss United States pageant's mission is to "celebrate intelligent women of all walks of life." The Miss United States pageant includes the following competition segments: Private Interview (a 3-minute private interview with judges about the delegate's career, academic, and charitable accomplishments), Evening Gown (a runway walk in formalwear to demonstrate the delegate's poise), Swimsuit (a runway walk in swimwear to display the delegate's physical fitness and on-stage confidence), and Personal Platform Promise (a 60-second 'pitch' of the delegate's chosen charitable cause followed by an onstage question). All four competition segments are worth 25% of the delegate's overall score.
Miss United States is part of the pageant system known as Mrs. United States Pageant, Inc. (DBA United States National Pageants) which has eight divisions: Little Miss United States, Miss Pre-Teen United States, Miss Jr. Teen United States, Miss Teen United States, Miss United States, Ms. United States, Ms. Woman United States, and Mrs. United States. United States National Pageants is the official and exclusive owner of the "Miss United States" trademark. In 2016, Miss United States organizers held the national pageant in Las Vegas, where it initially was held, for a 30th anniversary celebration.
The reigning Miss United States is Addison Grace Hadley of Tchula, Mississippi, who was crowned on October 22, 2023, in Memphis, Tennessee.
Notable recent Miss United States titleholders include Miss United States 2013 Candiace Dillard, who is a reality television personality on Bravo's Real Housewives of Potomac; Miss United States 2022 Lily K. Donaldson, who was the first Miss United States to visit all 50 states during her reign; and Miss United States 2014 Elizabeth Safrit, who also represented the United States at Miss World 2014 in London, England on December 14, 2014, where she placed as 2nd runner-up and earned the title of Continental Queen of Beauty of the Americas.
Titleholders
*From 1933 to 1952 (with the exception of 1935), "Miss United States" pageants may have been held by different organizations across the U.S., but there was no centralized organization or trademark.
In popular media
In the 2000 American comedy film Miss Congeniality, the FBI asks tomboy agent Gracie (Sandra Bullock) to go under cover as a contestant when a terrorist threatens to bomb the Miss United States pageant. The film also popularized the pop-culture phrase "she's beauty and she's grace" from the Miss United States song which has lyrics "she's beauty and she's grace, she's Miss United States."
History
Rehoboth Beach 1880 pageant
The very first use of the title "Miss United States" allegedly goes back as far as 1880, when Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, held the first recorded "beauty pageant" in the United States searching for "the most beautiful unmarried woman in our nation" and awarding her the title of 'Miss United States'. Some attribute this 1880 pageant to P.T. Barnum, although, this may be confused with P.T. Barnum's unsuccessful effort in the 1850s to start a live beauty contest. Several sources, including PBS and the History Channel, cite Thomas Edison as a judge of the 1880 Miss United States pageant. However, the very existence of this 1880 pageant is contested.