The Miss America Organization announced Tuesday that it is ending the swimsuit portion of the competition, and said it will no longer be judging contestants based on their physical appearance.
“So, we are no longer a pageant,” Gretchen Carlson, who will be named chair of the Board of Trustees of the Miss America Organization, told “Good Morning America.” “We are a competition. We will no longer judge out candidates on their outward physical appearance … And that means that we will no longer have a swimsuit competition.”
COMING UP ON @GMA AT 7AM: @GretchenCarlson on major changes coming to @MissAmericaOrg https://t.co/r7Q7ZlmsqX pic.twitter.com/s6ClNhb2Hg
— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) June 5, 2018
The former Miss America said this announcement will be implemented on Sept. 9, when the competition begins in Atlantic City.
Carlson said women would be judged on their social impact initiative and what comes out of their mouths, and not what’s on their bodies.
“We want to be open, transparent, inclusive to women who may not have felt comfortable participating in our program before,” Carlson said when asked if the competition would include women of all shapes and sizes.
Miss America 2018, Cara Mund, tweeted from the official account on Tuesday a promo for the 2018 Miss America 2.0 competition that featured a disappearing bikini.
We’re changing out of our swimsuits and into a whole new era #byebyebikini #MissAmerica2019 pic.twitter.com/08Y7jLFxhs
— Cara Mund (@MissAmerica) June 5, 2018
