14 DAY TRIAL // The Miss USA 2014 beauty pageant took place over the weekend in Baton Rouge, La., with the much coveted tiara and big cash prize going to Miss Nevada Nia Sanchez. While that was totally a deserved win, it was another beauty queen that got Twitter fawning all over her – and she didn’t even make it in the top 10.
Her name is Mekayla Diehl, she is 25 years old and she represented Indiana in the Miss USA 2014 pageant. Mekayla stood out in the bikini competition, which preceded the announcement of the 10 finalists and, while this round didn’t ensure her a spot there, it got her plenty of praises online.
Mekayla, you see, is neither super skinny nor very toned (and muscular) like most women we see in these beauty pageants. That’s not to say that she’s fat either or that she was spilling all over her two-piece white swimsuit.
As this photo over here at E! News can confirm, Mekayla’s body is exactly what comes to mind when you say “curvy:” she’s toned and is definitely showing signs she works out, but she’s not rail-thin, she has “flesh” on her bones.
The same media outlet notes that, when Mekayla walked on stage, Twitter pretty much “exploded” in virtual applause, praise for her amazing and yet-almost-“normal” figure. So, she might not have won anything in the competition and she might not have made it into the finals, but, without a doubt, she counts on many more fans than she had before entering the pageant.
“So cool :) I worked hard on my body without obsessing over being too skinny and I couldn't be more proud,” she writes on Twitter, in response to some of the most glowing praises she’s been receiving.
Many voices rushed to say that Mekayla’s figure has caused such a sensation online because she looks “normal,” which is to say, closer to how a regular woman would look. Saying this is true would be a gross overgeneralization, but there’s really no denying the fact that she looks unlike most beauty queens because of her well-placed curves.
She is more relatable for it and, at the same time, probably heralding a time when this type of competitions will stop ranking beauty queens participating in it by a very strict set of rules which are, at the same time, ideals of beauty for the rest of the world.
Perhaps beauty pageants are moving towards more inclusiveness and body acceptance, in that not just very skinny / muscular women will be considered up to par to participate in them. They would certainly be more popular then, don’t you think?