MISS AMERICA NINA DAVULURI IS ONE OF THE MOST SOUGHT AFTER WINNERS IN HISTORY
[pullquoteright] You can put a Miss America in a room with a group of other attractive women and you’ll find you will know exactly who she is. It’s almost like a magnet. There is an inner beauty, an inner glow…….
Rebecca King Dreman, Miss America
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A beautiful women adorned with fuller shapely curves can be desirable in many scenarios including posing for photos in niche magazines, modeling for specialty clothing lines, walking the runway during sanctioned bathing suit contests or being spied on by lustful eyes as she strolls down a crowded city street in snug faded blue jeans. One stage where a larger size is an albatross to be shed appears to be the American Beauty Pageant.
Just ask Nina Davuluri who in September of 2013 became the first Indian-American ever to be crowned Miss America.
Ms. Davuluri was very forth coming in admitting that previously she was a plus size with shapely curves but aggressively shed those unwanted pounds, according to The New York Post 53 lbs. to be exact, in order to compete in the Miss America Pageant.
During college, Ms. Davuluri battled bulimia, according to a profile of the pageant pro in The Post-Standard of Syracuse headlined “A doctor-to-be who detests the word ‘skinny.’ ” Rich foods were her weakness — she would chow down long after feeling full. At the time, she said, losing the flab felt like an unattainable goal.“I thought to myself, ‘I can’t do it,’ ” Davuluri told the paper.
According to Ibtimes.com, Radar Online found that Ms. Davuluri, 23, blogged on her trainer’s website about how she used to be 170 pounds at five-foot seven-inches tall. However, she quickly lost more than 60 pounds so she could compete in beauty pageants, thanks to the help of trainer Tia Falcone. “In four years I had put on over 50 pounds and was ashamed of myself for allowing myself to get so out of shape,” she wrote. “I realized that I needed to make some serious changes if I wanted to get healthy and feel confident about myself.”
The brunette beauty went on to explain that competing in pageants and one day being Miss America was the real motivator for her to lose weight.
Ms. Davuluri has been open about her struggles with her weight, confessing she had bulimia, which was her pageant platform, in a profile from Syrcuse.com.
Eatingdisordersonline.com shares the statistics for bulimia are shocking. Although this illness is often well hidden by those who suffer from it, the health consequences are serious and may be life threatening. The prevalence of bulimia, especially among young female women, is an indication of a society overly focused on weight and body image. They continue printing these statistics:
• Bulimia affects as many as 25 percent of college aged women in the US who use binging and purging as a means of weight control.
• 5.1 percent of women who attend college struggle with bulimia.
Emedicinehealth.com explains bulimia, also called bulimia nervosa, is an eating disorder. Someone with bulimia might binge on food and then purge in a cycle of binging and purging. Binge eating refers to quickly eating large amounts of food over short periods of time.
A person with bulimia often feels a loss of control over their eating, in that they engage in compulsive overeating, as well as guilt over their behavior. They are usually aware that their behavior is abnormal. Bulimia is most common in adolescent and young adult women. People with bulimia are often of normal or near-normal weight, which makes them different from people with anorexia nervosa (an eating disorder in which the person severely limits how much they eat). Bulimia is also different from binge eating disorder, an eating disorder in which the sufferer engages in recurring episodes of binge eating without engaging in purging behaviors to try to control his or her weight.
Ms. Davuluri made a wise decision to work with a personal trainer to obtain her ideal weight and the final result is paying off in a publicity bonanza.
Syracuse.com proclaims the demand for Miss America interviews is unprecedented in the history of the pageant, say Miss America officials. Nina Davuluri has generated more interest and requests for appearances than any previous Miss America.
The Miss America organization is inundated with requests from media in India. In fact, demand is so strong that organizers say they will probably send Nina Davuluri to India sometime in the coming months. “We can’t keep up with all the requests coming in from India,” said Erica Fiocco, marketing coordinator for Miss America. “It’s a job in itself. “It’s never been like this before,” Fiocco said.”We have had more media and appearance requests than for any other Miss America ever. And this time it’s international.”
The U.S. national media have been calling as well, but what’s unusual is more than a dozen requests from India – including The Times of India and Vogue India.
“They have been relentless,” Fiocco said.”They call and call and call, and she is just so booked. They all want to talk to her because she’s a role model for women in India. ”
Even President Obama weighed in on a larger scale speaking to the contributions of Indian Americans in general and Ms. Davuluri in particular.
Ndtv.com expresses President Barack Obama made a reference to the new Miss America’s Indian heritage as he acknowledged the role of the community in pushing for stronger relationship between the world’s two largest democracies.
“The strong people-to-people relationship makes it more important for the two governments for closer ties,” Mr. Obama told reporters in a joint news conference with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the Oval Office of the White House.
“And you know, I think all of us recognize that as the world’s two largest democracies, countries that have for a very long time been invested in, you know, the peace and prosperity of their own people, that there is a natural convergence between the United States and India,” Mr Obama told a battery of reporters after his meeting with Dr. Singh.
“And part of that has to do with the incredible people-to-people ties that exist. You know, Indian-Americans make extraordinary contributions to the United States every single day — businessmen, scientists, academics,” he said. “Now Miss America is of Indian-American descent, I think it’s a signal of how close our countries are,” Mr. Obama said in his remarks.
Indiawest.com cites the Indian American population in California rose from 360,392 residents in 2000 to 528,176 in 2010, an increase of 46.4%, according to Census 2010 data released last week by the U.S. Census Bureau. New York State, by contrast, experienced a modest rise in what the Census Bureau calls the “Asian Indian only” population, going from 296,056 a decade ago to 313,620 in 2010, up just 5.9%.
The Indian American population increased in the last decade by more than 80 percent in four southern states – Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky, according to the first set of newly released U.S. 2010 Census data.
Female Competition International is always looking for female role models who are taking risks and blazing new trails. Competitive, dignified women’s wrestling is still in its infancy in terms of national and worldwide acceptance. We encourage women who are interested in testing their fortitude to continue to pursue this great sport in organized and privately produced respectable settings.
It’s determined women like Nina Davuluri that remind us if you have a strong vision and are willing to make great sacrifices to pursue our dreams, anything is possible.
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Sources: ndtv.com/article/india/barack-obama, Wikipedia, nypost.com/2013/09/15/miss-new-yorks-pudgy-past, www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2013/09/miss_america_nina.html, ibtimes.com/nina-davuluri, nydailynews.com, eatingdisordersonline.com, emedicinehealth.com, careukeatingdisorders.com, timesofindia.indiatimes.com, www.indiawest.com/news, communities.washingtontimes.com, Wikimedia Commons, quotes.dictionary.com