Karlie Denise Hay (born December 12, 1997) is an American model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned

Miss Teen USA 2016 Miss Teen USA 2016 was the 34th Miss Teen USA pageant, was held at The Venetian Theatre in Las Vegas, Nevada on July 30, 2016. Katherine Haik of Louisiana crowned her successor Karlie Hay of Texas, at the end of the event. The pageant was webca ...

. She is the first Texan to win the crown since

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

Early life

Hay was born on December 12, 1997, in

Tomball, Texas Tomball ( ) is a city in Harris County in the U.S. state of Texas, a part of the Houston metropolitan area. The population was 12,341 at the 2020 U.S. census. In 1907, the community of Peck was renamed Tomball for local congressman Thomas Henry Ba ...

. As a child, some of her family members dealt with

alcoholism Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol (drug), alcohol that results in significant Mental health, mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognize ...

and

substance abuse Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, is the use of a drug in amounts or by methods which are harmful to the individual or others. It is a form of substance-related disorder. Differing definitions of drug abuse are used in public health, ...

. She graduated from

Tomball High School Tomball High School is an accredited public high school in the city of Tomball, Texas. It was the only high school in the Tomball Independent School District before the construction of Tomball Memorial High School in 2011. The high school was rem ...

in 2016, where she was a

cheerleader Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to ente ...

. Prior to winning Miss Teen USA, Hay was planning on attending

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

to study business.

Pageantry

Miss Texas Teen USA 2016

Hay represented Kemah in the Miss Texas Teen USA 2016 pageant. On November 29, 2015, she was crowned the winner by outgoing titleholder Chloe Kembel, beating out first runner-up Thekla McCarthy of La Grange.

Miss Teen USA 2016

On July 30, 2016, Hay was crowned

by outgoing titleholder

Katherine Haik Katherine Olivia Haik ( ; born May 9, 2000) is an American model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Teen USA 2015. At age 15, she was the youngest contestant to ever be crowned Miss Teen USA as well as the second entrant from Lo ...

. She beat out first runner-up Emily Wakeman of

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

Controversy

Almost immediately following Hay's crowning as Miss Teen USA 2016, screenshots of her

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

account dating from 2013 and 2014 were released with Hay repeatedly using the words "

nigga ''Nigga'' () is a colloquial and vulgar term used in African-American Vernacular English that began as a dialect form of the word ''nigger'', an ethnic slur against black people. The word is commonly associated with hip hop music and Afric ...

" and "

nigger In the English language, the word ''nigger'' is an ethnic slur used against black people, especially African Americans. Starting in the late 1990s, references to ''nigger'' have been progressively replaced by the euphemism , notably in cases ...

". This sparked outrage amongst fans, who accused Hay of

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...

Miss Teen USA 2010 Miss Teen USA 2010 was the 28th Miss Teen USA pageant, held at the Imperial Ballroom of the Atlantis Paradise Island, in The Bahamas on July 24, 2010. Stormi Henley, Miss Teen USA 2009, from Tennessee, crowned her successor, Maryland's Kamie Cra ...

Kamie Crawford Kameran "Kamie" Crawford (born October 25, 1992) is an American television host, and beauty pageant winner who was crowned Miss Teen USA 2010 on July 24, 2010 at the Atlantis Paradise Island Resort in the Bahamas. Crawford has been praised for h ...

condemned Hay for not cleaning up her Twitter account prior to becoming a public figure. Hay went on to apologize on her Twitter account for what she calls language that she's "not proud of and that there is no excuse for."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hay, Karlie Living people 1997 births Miss Teen USA winners People from Tomball, Texas American beauty pageant winners Female models from Texas Beauty pageant controversies 21st-century American women