Table of Contents

• Prologue
• Part One. Flappers and Scholars and Crowns, Oh My!
  • One
  • Two
  • Three
  • Four
• Part Two. Women on Top
  • Five
  • Six
  • Seven
  • Eight
  • Nine
  • Ten
• Part Three. The Ugly Pageant
  • Eleven
  • Twelve
  • Thirteen
  • Fourteen
• Epilogue
• Notes
• Acknowledgments
• Index

Promotional Information

"Kate Shindle's sharply observed, smart, and heartbreaking take on Miss America will be embraced by pageant super fans and should be required reading for everyone who's thought about what it takes to be America's ideal." -- Jennifer Weiner, author of Good in Bed, In Her Shoes, and All Fall Down

About the Author

Kate Shindle, who represented the state of Illinois, was Miss America 1998. Today, she is a working stage actor who has starred in Broadway musicals, including Cabaret , Legally Blonde, Wonderland, and Jekyll & Hyde, and dozens of regional productions. She has sung at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, worked as a correspondent for NBC’s Today, and appeared in TV/film projects such as Capote and Gossip Girl. Shindle maintains relationships with many of Miss America’s volunteers and contestants and continues to speak and write about HIV/AIDS prevention, marriage equality, and other issues in the Huffington Post, salon.com, and Newsweek. She lives in New York City.

Reviews

"Kate Shindle’s sharply observed, smart, and heartbreaking take on Miss America will be embraced by pageant super fans and should be required reading for everyone who’s thought about what it takes to be America’s ideal."
*Jennifer Weiner, author of Good in Bed, In Her Shoes, and All Fall Down*

"The Miss America Pageant: good thing or bad thing? In this well-researched, compellingly written, page-turner of a memoir/journalistic exposé, former Miss America Kate Shindle says it's both...."
*Chicago Tribune*

"This memoir offers a captivating cultural history of the last 100 years in America through the lens of the Miss America Pageant and its white-knuckled struggle to remain relevant."
*Library Journal*

"Millions of young women try. Only one per year becomes Miss America – most of the time. In Being Miss America by Kate Shindle, you’ll peek behind the brocade curtains to learn more."
*Rushville Republican*

"...the book is a critical yet affectionate profile of what has long been an iconic event, staged every year by one the country’s oldest not-for-profit institutions."
*Failure Magazine*