The 2024 Miss America and Miss America’s Teen competitions are ramping up this week, with Miss Mississippi Vivian O’Neal and Miss Mississippi’s Teen Nataleigh Nix stepping up to represent the Magnolia State.
Both events — which will be held at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in Orlando, Fla. — are scheduled to take place over the coming days, with the winners of the competitions set to be crowned over the weekend.
O’Neal, a Hattiesburg native, began her role as Miss Mississippi in June after competing for the winning title for the fifth year in a row.
“I’ve been involved in this organization for a really long time and last year I had decided ‘You know what? I’m going to be done, it’s time to move on and start my career.’ But there were so many different areas of my life where things had fallen into place that pointed to competing again, and I just felt a really strong tug on my heart to come back and compete one more time,” O’Neal explained as to what led to her Miss Mississippi crown.
Formerly Miss Pine Belt, O’Neal was awarded the crown and title following a high-ranking score from the judges during the preliminary rounds and after being named the winner of the Quality of Life portion of the competition.
“I had a very unique lens through which I’ve viewed students with disabilities and I kind of had an inside look on the struggles and disparities within the public school system that the students face through my little brother’s experience with a very rare form of muscular dystrophy called nemaline myopathy,” O’Neal said.
During the 2022 Miss Mississippi competition, the Southern Mississippi alumna was named second alternative for the crown during her time as Miss Hattiesburg. Before that, O’Neal had finished as first runner-up in 2021 while competing as Miss University of Southern Mississippi.
At this time, the Miss America competition has kicked off with private interviews on Sunday night, with preliminaries set to begin at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 10. As for the Miss America Teen competition, contestants are scheduled to begin preliminaries at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 9 before the talent phase begins at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 11.
The next Miss America will be crowned on Sunday, Jan. 14 while the winner of this year’s Miss America Teen will be announced on Saturday, Jan. 13.
Those looking to watch the competitions can purchase a streaming bundle for $99 on Miss America’s website, which includes live coverage of this week’s events and bonus content.
