thank you I’m awkward it’s fine how are
y’all do it good I’m all right
so many of us were just laughing right
smiling risk-taking one of those things
have in common do you know that they’re
contagious does that mean I think when
we think of the word contagious we
associate that with sickness or disease
and while it is a part of the definition
according to our friend merriam-webster
we’re talking today about an emotion or
feeling an attitude and that’s likely to
spread to and affect others you know
what else is contagious courage I was
born to teen parents and I grew up in a
really small town in Alabama now my
parents and I learned a lot together as
I’m sure you can imagine but two things
stand out to me from my childhood one of
them is that I was always encouraged to
stand up for myself and the other was
that I was always encouraged to question
the status quo in fact one of my
earliest memories of my mom was from
second grade after school one day I went
to daycare and I got in a fight with a
boy
we’ll call him Joshua he came up to me
with a football in his hand and he
smacked me across the face that did not
end well for Joshua
that was my first fight I say first cuz
I got in many but that was my first
fight and I’ll never forget my mother a
very strong empowered young woman at the
time it’s also the disciplinarian in our
household and I will never forget
waiting for her to get home you know
that feeling when you’re a kid and
you’re like I am gonna die today that’s
what’s gonna happen yeah so I knew that
I was gonna be in so much trouble and
you know that my mom looked at me and
she said don’t ever apologize for
standing up for yourself what a lesson
for a second-grade girl huh now we had a
conversation about how I was supposed to
stand up for myself later that’s okay
but that’s that’s a really profound
memory to have fast forward I cut that
spirit with me as I grew up I always was
questioning things around me I never
quite felt like I fit in in high school
and when I got to college that was a
parent I spent my freshman year at
Auburn University where I did not feel
like I fit in at all I felt like the
status quo was a four year degree with
an engagement ring at the end and a
husband shortly after and then on to
having kids and at 19 I just wasn’t sure
that that’s what I wanted or the future
that I saw for myself in that moment so
like any sane person I ldillard sale and
with 975 dollars two suitcases a pillow
and a one-way ticket I just moved to new
instead because that made total sense
and no one told me that that wasn’t
enough money to survive on but I did
because I wanted to question the world
around me and how it was supposed to go
well that time in New York led me altum
Utley to finding the Miss America
Organization again I had done it as a
teenager and I won Miss America in 2013
after many years of trying being Miss
America was simultaneously the best and
worst experience of my entire life it
was the best experience because it gave
me a chance to be an advocate every
single woman in my family was sexually
abused
just about and it gave me a chance to
talk about child sexual abuse on a
national scale I got to add
Kait for our child advocacy centers I
got to be an ambassador of Children’s
Miracle Network Hospitals I got to
inspire young women across the country
to achieve their dreams but after Miss
America I was systematically harassed
and ostracized by the people who ran
Miss America and it went on for four
straight years so while I was trying to
get my life back and move on from that
experience I was being ostracized from
the one thing that I really knew and
loved and I was really the only person
who truly knew that because as I tried
to tell people no one would really
listen and then one day as I’m sitting
in my friend’s Brooklyn apartment
Huffington Post notification comes down
on my phone the Miss America emails how
the pageant’s CEO really talks about the
winners this man’s name is Sam Haskell
and Sam had been doing to me what I
described for those four years and I
couldn’t seem to do anything about it
for once in my life I didn’t know how to
stand up for myself I didn’t know what I
was supposed to do how do you prove it
well turns out you prove it by having
the Huffington Post published emails
gonna so these emails range from body
shaming to demeaning all the women you
name it it was said about me and other
former Miss Americas and it was in this
moment that I had a choice to make
I could either just accept an apology
and move on
or I could demand that this not be the
status quo in the world that we live in
right now passing around a photo via
email of a former Miss America and
talking about how fat she is shouldn’t
be our status quo calling her degrading
names and talking about her intimate
life shouldn’t be the status quo so as
you can see just accepting an apology
really wasn’t up my alley you know so
instead when every news outlet called
I answered and I demanded that every
single person that was involved in any
one
these emails on any one of the chains
every single person who didn’t say
something who didn’t stop it they had to
go and I wasn’t going to stop until they
did and I think that they knew that
thanks and so ultimately they resigned
all of them and I thought that would be
the best part of this right like finally
after four years of this systematic
harassment and feeling so lost and
feeling so left out of this thing I
loved I thought that would be the best
part not even close
the best part was the hundreds of young
women and some men hundreds of young
women who reached out to me
hundreds of them saying thank you for
your strength and your effort you’re
putting into the organization I’ve
learned how to stand up for myself from
you or I wanted to thank you for your
courage and let you know that you
inspire me or this one the same things
been happening to me here in my state
I’m not gonna put up with it anymore
three examples of hundreds that came my
way my courage and standing up for
myself in that moment was contagious and
now see that I know that’s a big big
type of courage right there was national
news it’s this whole thing that I
brought down but it’s the little things
that you do daily they start to add up
when you look at someone dead in their
eyes they’re walking down the street and
you say hi remember how we used to do
that when you’re sitting at a table with
your friends and someone says something
that’s racist or bigoted and you stop
them from it that takes courage and it’s
contagious when you decide what you want
to do with your life you take the bull
by the horns and you make it happen you
inspire those around you to do the same
you give them permission and it matters
famous face here huh Rosa Parks her
moment of courage inspires 381 days of a
boycott talk about inspiring others and
being contagious with your courage she
changed the fabric of our nation because
she didn’t want to stand up and move or
gretchen carlson she’s a Miss America
sister of mine actually and in her words
she would say about a year and a half
ago she jumped off a cliff by herself
when she brought sexual harassment case
against Roger Ailes one of the biggest
names at Fox News and she won she
inspired other women to do the same and
now we’ve seen her movement of be fierce
me to hundreds of thousands of women
across the country standing up and
saying this is happening to me as well
it was contagious now she actually has a
foundation called the gift of courage
and this young woman Emma Gonzalez yes
she one of the faces not all but one of
the faces of courage in this generation
right now because she dared to say we
call BS she and her classmates and all
of the other young people across the
country right now dare I say will change
the fabric of this nation their courage
has been contagious and we’ve seen that
so the next time you want to jump off a
cliff the next time you want to stand up
for yourself
the next time you want to quit your job
and start a business do it don’t be
afraid to questions that is quo because
when you do others will see that courage and it will be contagious Thanks
y’all do it good I’m all right
so many of us were just laughing right
smiling risk-taking one of those things
have in common do you know that they’re
contagious does that mean I think when
we think of the word contagious we
associate that with sickness or disease
and while it is a part of the definition
according to our friend merriam-webster
we’re talking today about an emotion or
feeling an attitude and that’s likely to
spread to and affect others you know
what else is contagious courage I was
born to teen parents and I grew up in a
really small town in Alabama now my
parents and I learned a lot together as
I’m sure you can imagine but two things
stand out to me from my childhood one of
them is that I was always encouraged to
stand up for myself and the other was
that I was always encouraged to question
the status quo in fact one of my
earliest memories of my mom was from
second grade after school one day I went
to daycare and I got in a fight with a
boy
we’ll call him Joshua he came up to me
with a football in his hand and he
smacked me across the face that did not
end well for Joshua
that was my first fight I say first cuz
I got in many but that was my first
fight and I’ll never forget my mother a
very strong empowered young woman at the
time it’s also the disciplinarian in our
household and I will never forget
waiting for her to get home you know
that feeling when you’re a kid and
you’re like I am gonna die today that’s
what’s gonna happen yeah so I knew that
I was gonna be in so much trouble and
you know that my mom looked at me and
she said don’t ever apologize for
standing up for yourself what a lesson
for a second-grade girl huh now we had a
conversation about how I was supposed to
stand up for myself later that’s okay
but that’s that’s a really profound
memory to have fast forward I cut that
spirit with me as I grew up I always was
questioning things around me I never
quite felt like I fit in in high school
and when I got to college that was a
parent I spent my freshman year at
Auburn University where I did not feel
like I fit in at all I felt like the
status quo was a four year degree with
an engagement ring at the end and a
husband shortly after and then on to
having kids and at 19 I just wasn’t sure
that that’s what I wanted or the future
that I saw for myself in that moment so
like any sane person I ldillard sale and
with 975 dollars two suitcases a pillow
and a one-way ticket I just moved to new
instead because that made total sense
and no one told me that that wasn’t
enough money to survive on but I did
because I wanted to question the world
around me and how it was supposed to go
well that time in New York led me altum
Utley to finding the Miss America
Organization again I had done it as a
teenager and I won Miss America in 2013
after many years of trying being Miss
America was simultaneously the best and
worst experience of my entire life it
was the best experience because it gave
me a chance to be an advocate every
single woman in my family was sexually
abused
just about and it gave me a chance to
talk about child sexual abuse on a
national scale I got to add
Kait for our child advocacy centers I
got to be an ambassador of Children’s
Miracle Network Hospitals I got to
inspire young women across the country
to achieve their dreams but after Miss
America I was systematically harassed
and ostracized by the people who ran
Miss America and it went on for four
straight years so while I was trying to
get my life back and move on from that
experience I was being ostracized from
the one thing that I really knew and
loved and I was really the only person
who truly knew that because as I tried
to tell people no one would really
listen and then one day as I’m sitting
in my friend’s Brooklyn apartment
Huffington Post notification comes down
on my phone the Miss America emails how
the pageant’s CEO really talks about the
winners this man’s name is Sam Haskell
and Sam had been doing to me what I
described for those four years and I
couldn’t seem to do anything about it
for once in my life I didn’t know how to
stand up for myself I didn’t know what I
was supposed to do how do you prove it
well turns out you prove it by having
the Huffington Post published emails
gonna so these emails range from body
shaming to demeaning all the women you
name it it was said about me and other
former Miss Americas and it was in this
moment that I had a choice to make
I could either just accept an apology
and move on
or I could demand that this not be the
status quo in the world that we live in
right now passing around a photo via
email of a former Miss America and
talking about how fat she is shouldn’t
be our status quo calling her degrading
names and talking about her intimate
life shouldn’t be the status quo so as
you can see just accepting an apology
really wasn’t up my alley you know so
instead when every news outlet called
I answered and I demanded that every
single person that was involved in any
one
these emails on any one of the chains
every single person who didn’t say
something who didn’t stop it they had to
go and I wasn’t going to stop until they
did and I think that they knew that
thanks and so ultimately they resigned
all of them and I thought that would be
the best part of this right like finally
after four years of this systematic
harassment and feeling so lost and
feeling so left out of this thing I
loved I thought that would be the best
part not even close
the best part was the hundreds of young
women and some men hundreds of young
women who reached out to me
hundreds of them saying thank you for
your strength and your effort you’re
putting into the organization I’ve
learned how to stand up for myself from
you or I wanted to thank you for your
courage and let you know that you
inspire me or this one the same things
been happening to me here in my state
I’m not gonna put up with it anymore
three examples of hundreds that came my
way my courage and standing up for
myself in that moment was contagious and
now see that I know that’s a big big
type of courage right there was national
news it’s this whole thing that I
brought down but it’s the little things
that you do daily they start to add up
when you look at someone dead in their
eyes they’re walking down the street and
you say hi remember how we used to do
that when you’re sitting at a table with
your friends and someone says something
that’s racist or bigoted and you stop
them from it that takes courage and it’s
contagious when you decide what you want
to do with your life you take the bull
by the horns and you make it happen you
inspire those around you to do the same
you give them permission and it matters
famous face here huh Rosa Parks her
moment of courage inspires 381 days of a
boycott talk about inspiring others and
being contagious with your courage she
changed the fabric of our nation because
she didn’t want to stand up and move or
gretchen carlson she’s a Miss America
sister of mine actually and in her words
she would say about a year and a half
ago she jumped off a cliff by herself
when she brought sexual harassment case
against Roger Ailes one of the biggest
names at Fox News and she won she
inspired other women to do the same and
now we’ve seen her movement of be fierce
me to hundreds of thousands of women
across the country standing up and
saying this is happening to me as well
it was contagious now she actually has a
foundation called the gift of courage
and this young woman Emma Gonzalez yes
she one of the faces not all but one of
the faces of courage in this generation
right now because she dared to say we
call BS she and her classmates and all
of the other young people across the
country right now dare I say will change
the fabric of this nation their courage
has been contagious and we’ve seen that
so the next time you want to jump off a
cliff the next time you want to stand up
for yourself
the next time you want to quit your job
and start a business do it don’t be
afraid to questions that is quo because
when you do others will see that courage and it will be contagious Thanks
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