Nina Davuluri

Nina Davuluri (born April 20, 1989) is an American public speaker and advocate, who is currently the host of the reality show Made in America on Zee TV America..

Davuluri was born on April 20, 1989 in Syracuse, New York, to Telugu-speaking Hindu parents from India. Her mother is an Information technology specialist, her father was a gynecologist, and her sister is a doctor. When she was six weeks old, Davuluri was brought to live with her grandmother and aunt in Vijayawada. 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. She is also fluent in Telugu.

At the age of 16, Davuluri became interested in beauty pageants after her sister Meena won the title of Miss St. Joseph. 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. 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. After graduating from the University of Michigan, Davuluri returned to competing in pageants in order to fund graduate school. 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.

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. She graduated from St. Joseph in 2007, the same year that her parents moved to Fayetteville, New York. 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. She graduated in 2011 with a B.S. in brain behavior and cognitive science. 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.

Davuluri tried again the following year and won the title of Miss Syracuse. She was then was crowned Miss New York 2013. Shortly after winning the Miss New York title, she held a party in her hotel room, where a fellow contestant in the neighboring room later claimed to have heard her refer to the previous Miss New York Mallory Hagan (who later went on to become Miss America 2013) as "fat as [bleep]" during this party. Davuluri denied making these comments, later saying that "Mallory and I are good friends." An official from the Miss America pageant also stated that the "situation was investigated fully back in July and there is no validity to the story whatsoever. Miss New York spoke to Mallory Hytes Hagan to let her know there was no validity and to apologize if she was offended in any way." In addition, 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".

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. 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. She is also the second Asian American contestant to be crowned Miss America (the first was Filipino American Angela Perez Baraquio in 2001). 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."

As Miss America 2014, she was the "first contestant of Indian descent to win the Miss America Competition".

Shortly after she was crowned Miss America 2014, Davuluri became the target of xenophobic and racist commentary in American social media. The news media compared this response to the backlash against Vanessa Williams after she became Miss America 1984. Congresswoman Grace Meng additionally linked Davuluri's experience to the antisemitism that Jewish American Bess Myerson faced as Miss America 1945. Many of the comments demanded to know why Davuluri was chosen over the soldier, Miss Kansas Theresa Vail, misidentified her as Muslim or Arab (equating both terms to the word "terrorist"), or associated her with groups such as Al-Qaeda. They also noted the pageant date relative to the September 11 anniversary, and generally expressed anti-Indian sentiments and anti-Arab sentiments. Davuluri later said that she was prepared for the social-media response because she faced a similar situation a few months earlier when she was crowned Miss New York.

An editorial by the staff of The Hindu highlighted a different narrative in India and the Indian diaspora regarding her win and colorism. The editorial suggested that rather than hold a pageant title in India, "the dark complexioned 24-year-old [Davuluri] would not have stood a chance ... had she been in India, far from entering a beauty contest, it is more likely that Ms Davuluri would have grown up hearing mostly disparaging remarks about the colour of her skin; she would have been — going by the storyline of most "fairness" cream advertisements — a person with low self-esteem and few friends." Dean Asha Rangappa (Yale Law School) echoed these sentiments when she stated that "Davuluri is following in the footsteps of other darker-skinned Indian women who have been recognized in America for their talent and beauty, like The Office's Mindy Kaling or ER's Parminder Nagra — women who'd never get a second glance in India." Similar remarks appeared in social media and in numerous editorials. Davuluri also discussed the subject with reporters in the American media, stating that she was interested in becoming involved in the "Dark is Beautiful" campaign.

During Davuluri's visit to Central York High School in Pennsylvania, 18-year-old Patrick Farves was suspended for inviting her to his 2014 prom during a question-and-answer session. Although she requested that the suspension be lifted in a Facebook post, school administrators said that they must maintain standards for student behavior. Farves later stated that he regretted the joke as it overshadowed her platform.

— Yale University junior Lorraine James in February 2014

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. She also participated in the 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Summit Youth and Women Day in Nairobi in July 2015. 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. Part of this tour focused on events connected with International Women's Day (including a talk for the Asia Society).

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." The following month, she spoke on women in STEM at Northeastern University. In March 2015, she spoke at Harvard's "Side by Side" gender-equality campaign. Later in the same month, she discussed the subject of diversity at Princeton.