Do You Have a Tip About the Pageant World? We Want to Hear From You.

When the reigning Miss USA and Miss Teen USA, Noelia Voigt and UmaSofia Srivastava, resigned last month, it rocked the pageant world.

As a reporter who has covered pageants before, including the Mrs. World competition in January, I wanted to understand more about the reasons for their departures and what was happening inside Miss USA. Even when the organization has faced allegations of racism, sexual harassment and pageant rigging in the past, no titleholder had ever before stepped down.

My colleague Callie Holtermann and I made dozens of calls, and uncovered a pattern of dysfunction at the organization that some traced to its new leadership. Some pageant contestants said they were disillusioned with Miss USA and described the environment as toxic.

We want to learn more about Miss USA, its parent company Miss Universe and the pageant world more broadly. We’re interested in hearing from contestants past and present, pageant coaches, parents, employees and anyone else who has knowledge of the inner workings of pageants.

We’ll read every response to this questionnaire and reach back out to you if we are interested in learning more about your story. We won’t publish any part of your response without speaking with you first, verifying your information and hearing back from you. And we won’t share your contact information outside the Times newsroom or use it for any reason other than to get in touch with you.