Meet Miss America, 23 year old Kira Kazantsev from New York. Miss New York stunned the judges, wowed the audience and caused a furor on social media on her way to being crowned Miss America 2015.
The 23 year old beauty performed exemplarily well in all her categories. However, during her talent performance, she performed "Happy" by Pharell Williams while sitting cross legged and banging a red plastic cup on stage. This stirred a huge storm across social media circles, with thousands of people criticizing her for her performance. The New York beauty was not deterred. "The reason why I chose to do that talent is I wanted every single little girl in America to be able to see that you can do that talent - you can do whatever talent you want on national television - even with a red cup - and still be Miss America and have the time of your life," Kazantsev said. "I literally in that minute and 30 seconds had the most fun I've ever had, and that's because I stayed true to myself."
Kira stunned the judges on how she answered her questions in a contest that saw the judges inquire on every topic conceivable, from gun control to domestic violence to college rape to politics; nothing was off limits. Kazantsev named combating female sexual violence in the military as what she would want female U.S senators to press their male counterparts on. She also said she would dedicate her time to campaigning against domestic violence.
Kazantsev won a 50,000 dollar scholarship with which she plans to attend law school. Her win marks the third consecutive time Miss New York has won Miss America.
The First runner up was Miss Virginia Courtney Paige Garrett. The other top five were Miss Arkansas Aston Campbell, Miss Florida Victoria Cowen and Miss Massachusetts Lauren Kuhn. The contest brought together beauties from across 51 states who would display their beauty, intelligence and talent for all of America and as always, there would be only one winner.
