Aaron Showalter/New York Daily News
Nina Davuluri is the second New Yorker in a row to take the crown at the Miss America pageant.
Newly crowned Miss America Nina Davuluri wasn’t expecting to take home the nation’s top tiara — but she was prepared for the hate-filled backlash when she did.
The 24-year-old Syracuse-born stunner — who became the pageant’s first Indian-American victor and the second in a row from New York — says she spent time readying herself for the thousands of racist tweets that marred her historic Sept. 15 win in Atlantic City.
“It was something I wasn’t surprised about,” Davuluri told the News over breakfast at midtown’s The Lambs Club. “I’d experienced those same kind of remarks when I’d won Miss New York and I knew if I won Miss America it would happen again.”
Many rushed to the defense of Davuluri — who fittingly strutted the stage with a platform of diversity and cultural competency. But even among the star’s backers like Stephen Colbert and Mindy Kaling, it was Vanessa Williams whose support Davuluri cherished most.
RELATED: 1ST MISS AMERICA OF INDIAN DESCENT SLAMMED AS ARAB
Thirty years ago this week, Williams went from winning Miss Syracuse to being the first African-American Miss America in 1983 — and she battled the same kind of hatred.
“She had the similar response and backlash when she was crowned,” says Davuluri, who met Williams backstage at her Broadway show “The Trip to Bountiful.”
“It just shows, in 30 years, yes, we’ve evolved, but how much further we have to go, because it’s a very similar conversation.”
It wasn’t the quest for fame or the perfect bikini body convinced this University of Michigan grad to put on her high heels and step into the pageant world.
RELATED: MISS AMERICA: FIRST DAY ON JOB A SPLASH FOR NINA DAVULURI
Davuluri says she started strutting her stuff in the pageant circuit because she wanted to become a doctor but would need help paying the bills for med school.
“A part of the reason was for scholarship money,” said Davuluri, who resided in Fayetteville, NY before embarking this week on the year-long roadshow that comes with the title.
She studied pre-med and is considering pursuing cognitive psychiatry when she passes her sash to next year’s winner.
“Education was very much pushed in my household from day one,” says Davuluri. “Going to med school or becoming a physician was the easy path. It was expected of me in my family.”
RELATED: MISS AMERICA NINA DAVULURI'S BEAUTY SECRETS
The 24-year-old, whose older sister Mina studies at SUNY Upstate Medical University, says she wants to be a doctor for her own reasons, and not just because of family pressure.
“When I went to college, I said, ‘Okay, am I doing this because I want to or because I have to?’ Unfortunately I feel like in south Asian communities, children, or people like me who are first generation, feel like they have to,” she says.
Not her — at least not since a transformative visit to an orphanage in Vijayawada, India, where her grandparents lived.
“A 4-year-old girl offered me her roll of bread that I had given her, and it was my enlightening revelation,” she said. “You realize that your purpose isn’t about you — it’s about your service to others. One way for me to do that was to become a physician.”
And it’s not just her heart that’s made of gold. The pageant queen — who says dating isn’t a part of her life right now — lit up when the conversation turned to engagement rings.
Note to any future suitors: Don’t surprise Miss America with a diamond unless you’ve gotten her stamp of approval first.
“I’m very particular,” said Davuluri.
mfriedman@nydailynews.com
No comments:
Post a Comment