GettyThe five finalists for the Miss Teen USA award have been mocked online for ‘looking exactly the same’.
The top five Miss Teen USA finalists were Karlie Hay from Texas, Marley Stokes from South Carolina, Emily Wakeman from North Carolina, Erin Snow from Alabama, and Carissa Morrow from Nevada – and the most diverse thing about them is their eyebrow shape.
These are your TOP 5 #MissTeenUSA contestants! pic.twitter.com/qi3KJT6COb
— MISS TEEN USA (@MissTeenUSA) July 31, 2016
All five of them are facially similar with light skin, blonde hair and blue eyes.
And people on social media were unsurprisingly shocked by the lack of diversity found in the finalists.
miss teen usa, you should be disappointed in your pageant. beauty is beyond blonde hair and blue eyes.
— Alexa Losey (@alexalosey) July 31, 2016
Wow, I love the diversity of the Miss Teen USA top 5! I love that girls get sich diverse role models to look up to ? pic.twitter.com/VJcLru4Il1
— Lava Girl (@Sophie_Grieser) August 1, 2016
I love how diverse miss teen USA has become https://t.co/5c6iZwUw91
— ploonij (@senaIesdevida) July 31, 2016
https://twitter.com/Respect_da_Gawd/status/759796782222217217?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Even Chrissy Teigen reacted to the lack of diversity:
Wow how can we choose from such a diverse bunch https://t.co/0a4JHbP465
— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) July 31, 2016
Karlie Hay, 18, who was crowned Miss Teen USA, has also been criticised after people found tweets from her personal account containing derogatory words, the Telegraph reports.
This account is now locked, Hay has released an apology for her actions, saying she has used ‘language publicly in the past which I am not proud of and that there is no excuse for.’
.@MissTeenUSA's old Twitter account came back to haunt her, filled with her using the N-word https://t.co/zC6uGOXXKC pic.twitter.com/Wf1zug4rvN
— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) August 1, 2016
Despite her remarks, it looks as though she’ll be keeping the crown. And people aren’t happy:
Why would they strip a racist white girl of her Miss Teen USA title? She's literally the perfect example of what America's really about
— paulo (@planetplayboy) July 31, 2016
Really hope they take away Miss Teen USA's crown for those racist tweets. Or better yet just stop having beauty pageants altogether.
— Christine Sydelko (@csydelko) July 31, 2016
Well done Miss Teen USA, not only lacking a diverse final 5, but the winner seems to have no issue with using a derogatory word #MissTeenUsA
— Kellie (@HokieGurl08) July 31, 2016
The Miss Universe Organization has said it supports Miss Hay, but also branded her language as ‘unacceptable’ in a statement on Sunday.
The statement read:
The language Karlie Hay used is unacceptable at any age and in no way reflects the values of The Miss Universe Organization.
As Karlie stated, she was in a different place in her life and made a serious mistake she regrets and for which she sincerely apologizes. Karlie learned many lessons through those personal struggles that reshaped her life and values. We as an organization are committed to supporting her continued growth.
The only thing that is unacceptable is the fact that the organisation knows about Hay’s use of derogatory language and still crowned her Miss Teen USA – she’s not quite the role model one would expect from an organisation that thrives on purity and image.
