Nina Davuluri

Davuluri was born on April 20, 1989, in Syracuse, New York, into a Telugu family from India. Her mother is an Information technology specialist, her father was a gynecologist, and her sister is a doctor.[6][7][8][9][10][11] When she was six weeks old, Davuluri was brought to live with her grandmother and aunt in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh. She stayed there until she was two-and-a-half years old, when her parents brought her back to the United States, returning to India each summer in order to study Indian dance.[10][12] She is also fluent in Telugu.[13]

Davuluri moved to Oklahoma when she was four years old. She lived there until she was 10, next moving to St. Joseph, Michigan.[14][15] This period of her life would become the foundation for her future Miss American platform, "Celebrating Diversity Through Cultural Competency," as its goal is to confront bullying by actively learning to talk about diversity in an open and respectful way.[15]

As a child, Davuluri studied ballet, tap, and jazz dance, and was later in the St. Joseph High School, where she participated in the marching band, played varsity tennis, and was on the Science Olympiad team.[12] She graduated from St. Joseph in 2007, the same year that her parents moved to Fayetteville, New York.[14][16] She chose to stay in Michigan, however, first beginning college at Michigan State University, and later transferring to the University of Michigan, where she was a Sigma Kappa/Alpha Mu, was on the Dean's List, and received Michigan Merit and National Honor Society Awards.[17][18][19] She graduated in 2011 with a B.S. in brain behavior and cognitive science.[8][12][18][20] She then moved back in with her family in New York, where she took nine pre-med courses at Le Moyne College. Halfway through her tenure as Miss America, however, she announced that she would not be applying to medical school.[21][22]

At the age of 16, Davuluri became interested in beauty pageants after her sister Meena won the title of Miss St. Joseph.[23][24] As she was too young to enter local pageants, Davuluri became involved with Miss America's Teen division in Michigan, where she also learned that she could earn scholarship money for college.[23] She won the Miss Southwest Michigan's Outstanding Teen 2005 pageant, followed by the Miss Michigan's Outstanding Teen 2006 pageant, and was first runner-up at the 2007 Miss America's Outstanding Teen pageant. After winning nearly $25,000 in scholarship money, she stopped competing for a few years and focused instead on her undergraduate education.[14][25][26] After graduating from the University of Michigan, Davuluri returned to competing in pageants in order to fund graduate school.[26] In 2012, as a New York resident, she won the title of Miss Greater Rochester, followed by second place in the Miss New York pageant.[27][28][29]

Davuluri tried again the following year and won the title of Miss Syracuse. She was then was crowned Miss New York 2013.[30] Davuluri has spoken publicly about losing 53 pounds (24 kg), her struggle with bulimia, and her belief that "you don't need to be a certain size to be healthy".[31][32]

At the International Alliance for the Prevention of AIDS (IAPA) benefit dinner, April 19, 2014

Davuluri, the first Indian American to win the Miss America pageant (and the second Miss New York in a row), held the title of Miss America 2014 from September 15, 2013, to September 14, 2014.[33][34][35] In doing so, she followed in the footsteps of a previous Miss Syracuse/Miss New York, Vanessa Williams, who (as Miss America 1984) was the first African American winner of the pageant.[36][37] She is also the second Asian American contestant to be crowned Miss America (the first was Filipino American Angela Perez Baraquio in 2001).[38] NPR's Michael Martin commented on this aspect of her win by noting that "there were five Asian-Americans competing for the crown. That's the highest number in pageant history. Three of you were in the top five. Two of you were the finalists, and this in a contest where initially the requirements were that contestants be of good health and of the white race."[26][39][40]

Drawing on her background in Kuchipudi and Bharatanatyam, Davuluri danced to the song "Dhoom Taana" from the film Om Shanti Om for her talent performance.[8][10][41] Her routine, the first time Bollywood appeared on the Miss America stage, was developed in conjunction with Nakul Dev Mahajan as a fusion of Bollywood and Indian classical dance.[41][42] After being crowned Miss America, she said that she was told that she was "never going to win with a Bollywood talent so just go back to singing if you are serious about [winning]."[31]

During the final moments of the pageant, one of the hosts, Lara Spencer, approached the only contestants left on the stage, Davuluri and Miss California Crystal Lee and asked them how they were "feeling." Davuluri replied that both she and Lee were "so proud. We're making history right here, standing here as Asian-Americans."[43] She later described that part of the pageant as "very surreal."[26]

I really wanted to help effect a change in beauty standards . ... Miss America's branding is so associated with the girl next door, which has always meant blonde hair and blue eyes with only a few exceptions, but the girl next door must evolve as the country evolves. When I was younger I wanted to fit in, but I was aware growing up that I didn't fit that mould, and I really wanted to help make a change that meant young girls wouldn't feel like that.

— Nina Davuluri[44]

Since completing her year as Miss America in September 2014, Davuluri has worked as a public speaker and advocate for diversity, gender equality, and the promotion of STEM education. In this capacity, she has spoken in both political and diplomatic venues. In September 2014, she shared the stage with PBS' NewsHour Weekend anchor Hari Sreenivasan as hosts for a Madison Square Garden talk by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.[84][85][86][87] She also participated in the 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Summit Youth and Women Day in Nairobi in July 2015.[88][89] About a year later, Davuluri traveled to Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Vijayawada as part of an official March 2016 tour for the U.S. State Department to discuss women's education.[90] Part of this tour focused on events connected with International Women's Day (including a talk for the Asia Society).[91][92]

Davuluri continues to speak on the subjects of diversity and STEM at college campuses. In an October 2014 East Carolina University talk, she discussed the harassment she faced during her childhood."[93] The following month, she spoke on women in STEM at Northeastern University.[94] In March 2015, she spoke at Harvard's "Side by Side" gender-equality campaign.[95][96] Later in the same month, she discussed the subject of diversity at Princeton.[17][97]

• India Abroad Face of the Future Award 2014: India Abroad, June 19, 2015, M69-M82.[23]
• Elected trustee to the Miss America Foundation Board in February 2015 (the first Miss America elected to the board).[23][98]
• In August 2014 fashion designer Tony Bowls announced that he designed a shoe, "The Nina," in her honor.[99][100]

• Reddy, Vanita. Fashioning Diaspora: Beauty, Femininity, and South Asian American Culture (Asian American History & Culture). Temple University Press, 2016.

• Indians in the New York City metropolitan area

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nina Davuluri.

• Official website
• Nina Davuluri: A Poem For Earthy Skinned Women ("Not Fair, Just Lovely") – ScoopWhoop, March 9, 2016.