Although movies like “Miss Congeniality” and reality television shows like “Toddlers and Tiaras” make beauty pageants seem like a competition among bimbo airheads who all want to promote world peace and end world hunger, the Miss America competition is much more than that.

U.S. Air Force Second Lieutenant Madison Marsh, also known as Miss America 2024, became the first active member of the Armed Forces to win the title, and she is changing the face of the competition and the role of women altogether. She is just the beginning.

Marsh is a 2023 graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy with a degree in physics and is now a student at the Harvard Medical School where she’s studying how to utilize artificial intelligence to detect pancreatic cancer – the same disease that her mother died of in 2018.

But her research isn’t the only work she is doing to fight pancreatic cancer. After her mom’s death, Marsh started the Whitney Marsh Foundation in 2019 as a senior in high school and has since raised over $230,000 to help fund research. 

While Marsh is a beautiful young woman, she did not win Miss America because of her looks but because of her extraordinary measures to make the world a better place. She is selfless and caring and illustrates the goal of the Miss America competition. 

Marsh represents the strength of women. She is a hard working career woman, but she did not have to sacrifice her femininity to prove she is competent. She can be intelligent and beautiful – and it shouldn’t ever have to be either/or.

This is what being Miss America is. The competition is not about just being pretty but about being a smart and caring person who truly puts others above themselves. The Miss America competition is about being a woman – and what a beautiful thing that is.