{"id":11293,"date":"2016-07-08T09:29:44","date_gmt":"2016-07-08T13:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=11293"},"modified":"2016-07-08T09:29:44","modified_gmt":"2016-07-08T13:29:44","slug":"miss-teen-usa-ditches-swimsuit-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2016\/07\/miss-teen-usa-ditches-swimsuit-competition.html","title":{"rendered":"Miss Teen USA Ditches Swimsuit Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/files\/2016\/07\/Natalia-Terrero-is-Miss-New-York-Teen-USA-2016.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11296 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2016\/07\/Natalia-Terrero-is-Miss-New-York-Teen-USA-2016-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"Natalia-Terrero-is-Miss-New-York-Teen-USA-2016\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>Starting at this year\u2019s Miss Teen USA pageant being held on July 30<sup>th<\/sup>, contestants will no longer be competing in a swimwear competition. Instead, the 14 to 18-year-old contestants will model athletic wear before the judges. \u00a0Fans are cheering after pageant officials announced the change on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>The change was brought on a new commitment to \u201cevolve in ways that celebrate women\u2019s strength, confidence and beauty for years to come,\u201d Miss Universe Organization president Paula Shugart wrote in a letter to the pageant\u2019s state directors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis decision reflects an important cultural shift we\u2019re all celebrating that empowers women who lead active, purposeful lives and encourage those in their communities to do the same,\u201d she continued. \u201cOur hope is that this decision will help all of Miss Teen USA\u2019s fans recognize these young women for the strong, inspiring individuals they are.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Activists for woman are also cheering on the change.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Body Positive is happy to learn that Miss Teen USA is replacing their swimsuit competition with girls modeling activewear,\u201d\u00a0Connie Sobczak, the co-founder and executive director of the organization The Body Positive, said. \u201cThis is a step forward in honoring girls as strong and capable rather than simply as objects at which to stare.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Miss Teen America, another major pageant for teenage girls, already has its contestants compete in activewear instead of swimwear. Similarly, in 2014 Miss World cut its bikini portion in favor of a\u00a0beachwear show. But Miss USA and Miss America still famously feature a swimwear portion of the competition. There are no plans to remove the swimsuit portion anytime in the near future.<\/p>\n<p>Miss USA host and creative producer Julianne Hough previously admitted to USA Today that &#8220;there\u2019s definitely some work I think still to be done \u2026 in the next few years we may grow from that, but let\u2019s see where this year goes.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Starting at this year\u2019s Miss Teen USA pageant being held on July 30th, contestants will no longer be competing in a swimwear competition. Instead, the 14 to 18-year-old contestants will model athletic wear before the judges. \u00a0Fans are cheering after pageant officials announced the change on Tuesday. The change was brought on a new commitment&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":600,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3087,3090,3088,3089],"class_list":["post-11293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-television","tag-miss-teen-usa","tag-pageant","tag-swimsuit-competition","tag-teen-usa"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Miss Teen USA Ditches Swimsuit Competition<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Miss Teen USA pageant leaders want to make sure \u201cfans recognize these young women for the strong, inspiring individuals they are.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2016\/07\/miss-teen-usa-ditches-swimsuit-competition.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Miss Teen USA Ditches Swimsuit Competition\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Miss Teen USA pageant leaders want to make sure \u201cfans recognize these young women for the strong, inspiring individuals they are.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2016\/07\/miss-teen-usa-ditches-swimsuit-competition.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-07-08T13:29:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/files\/2016\/07\/Natalia-Terrero-is-Miss-New-York-Teen-USA-2016-300x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Megan Bailey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Miss Teen USA Ditches Swimsuit Competition","description":"Miss Teen USA pageant leaders want to make sure \u201cfans recognize these young women for the strong, inspiring individuals they are.\u201d","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2016\/07\/miss-teen-usa-ditches-swimsuit-competition.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Miss Teen USA Ditches Swimsuit Competition","og_description":"Miss Teen USA pageant leaders want to make sure \u201cfans recognize these young women for the strong, inspiring individuals they 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