It doesn't matter who you are, where you live, or how many times you've been crowned a beauty queen. Everyone has those little, self-perceived beauty "flaws" that can make us feel self-conscious. Maybe it's a slightly crooked tooth, a face that reddens easily, or eyes that don't sit the way you wish they would.
Whatever the case, learning how to accept — and even embrace — these things about ourselves can be incredibly freeing. We spoke to several Miss USA contestants — women who are noted for their extreme beauty — to see what sort of physical "flaws" they've dealt with and how they overcame them. Listening to their take on their own imperfections will make you realize how hard we can be on ourselves when it comes to our bodies, regardless of what's actually in the mirror.
"I have a very asymmetrical face, and for a while that did bother me, especially in pictures," Miss South Carolina Tori Sizemore said. "One side of my face would look completely different from the other, but I've learned to live with it and embrace it. I have one permanently raised eyebrow, which is kind of sassy and fun. You just learn to figure out how to quit seeing your perceived imperfections as flaws and start seeing them as your quirks and unique things that make you stand apart."
For Miss Kentucky Braea Tilford, that one thing she used to feel self-conscious about was her hair. "I like to go for a more polished look — and I use the word 'polished' very loosely — and so sometimes having the big, curly hair would make me really insecure. But over the years, I've come to love it," she told me backstage. "I've also realized that for most people, whatever we don't have we want, and whatever we do have, other people want. Not everybody gets to have curls like mine, and so it's great to just embrace them. I've found that in the summertime, it's actually really convenient to just wet and go. I'm really thankful for my curls."
"I don't think it's necessarily a 'flaw' about myself, but my chin dimple is something I've been made fun of for since people were old enough to recognize it," Miss California Kelley Johnson said. "I've really grown to love it. It's part of me, and I know I got it from my dad, who passed away from colon cancer when I was 5 years old, so I've just kind of grown into it being one of my favorite things about me. When I look into the mirror, it's what sets me apart."
When we asked Miss Washington Abigail Hill about her self-perceived flaw that she's learning to embrace, she said that without hesitation, it had to be her feet. "I have very interesting feet," she said. "My arch is abnormally high. Also, I grew up in Hawaii, so I wore flip-flops all the time, which made me pigeon-toed. I have a really big space in between my big toe and my second toe."
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5Miss Delaware: Her Height and Build
Image Source: Benjamin Askinas / Miss Universe Organization
"I was an athlete my entire life, so I've had very muscular legs. Being in pageantry, I always felt like I needed to be a certain height and a certain weight, and I'm grateful that the Miss Universe organization has proven me wrong," Miss Delaware Sierra Wright said. "So being 5'6" and not this tiniest little person, I just embrace that I can show you can have thicker legs and you can have an athletic build. Miss USA doesn't need to be a model, so I'm just grateful I've been able to walk on stage and feel amazing. I may not look like everyone else, but my legs are something I've embraced."
"For me, I don't think it's a flaw, but something I've learned to work with is that my eyes point down — it's just the shape of them," Miss Maryland Brittinay Nicolette said. "Unfortunately, it can tend to make me look sleepy or what I call having 'sad eyes' unless I do my makeup in a way that makes them go up. Everything I do has to come up, because if you naturally follow the shape of my eyes, then they go down. There's nothing worse than looking sad or sleepy if you're happy and awake. I've learned how to work with it. I haven't ever hated it, but something I feel as though I can control with my makeup to make me reflect how I feel."
"I mean, who doesn't have self-perceived beauty flaws? I used to feel very insecure about my nose. I used to think, well, it's big, and especially when I lose weight, it looks even bigger," Miss Utah Narine Ishhanov said. "When my parents started telling me how beautiful my nose is, I started taking more pictures of myself. And when the whole Instagram thing started popping, I really liked how [my nose] looked different than the majority of the people in my class. I love that I stood out that way. I know it's a little thing, but we all have those things."
"When I was younger, I actually got bullied for being the tall girl," Miss District of Columbia Bryce Armstrong said. (Isn't it funny how some of the most desirable traits can make you a target for childhood finger-pointing?) "Today I've grown to love my height because everyone wants to be tall."
A handful of the Miss USA contestants I spoke with, including Miss Louisiana Laryssa Bonacquisti, mentioned that their eyebrows were something they've learned to love over the years. "I didn't always love my eyebrows. I used to think they were so big and so bushy, and I hated them. Now, that's really come into style," she explained. "Now, instead of overgrooming or overdoing, I really focus on maintaining them as they are. I used to be so self-conscious about them, and now they're one of my favorite things about my face."
For years, Miss Georgia Marianny Egurrola said she struggled with body image, especially when it came to her hips. "I tried to sign with different agencies, and a lot of them told me that because of my hips, they couldn't sign me. I remember one of them saying, 'Oh, this is our problem that we have with Latinas,'" she recalled. "I started to become self-conscious and concerned about the way my hips look, and whenever I was posting [pictures online], I was uncomfortable, I was trying to hide my hips, and I was trying to practice different poses that would make me look skinnier and different. It took me a while to realize that my body is the way it is for a reason, and that yes, genetics matter, and yes, I'm Latina, and yes, I can do anything."
"It's never been diagnosed as rosacea, but I've always had rosy cheeks," Miss Minnesota Kalie Wright said. "It's always something that, since I was little, people would ask me if I had blush on and I would get embarrassed and blush even harder. I still personally kind of deal with it on a daily basis, but really I'm just living with the rosy cheek look."
"When I was little, just like every young girl or boy, we're teased at some point. I was always teased for my teeth and my smile, but it's actually one of my favorite traits about myself now. Mainly because it's an external way of me showing my joy and appreciation," Miss Wyoming Callie Bishop said. "My father passed away about a year ago, and he gave me this smile, so I always feel like I'm carrying a little bit of him with me. My smile is big and beautiful, and it can reach a large audience. It's honestly my favorite trait about myself."
