Miss USA and Miss Teen USA Resignations

Overview

Miss USA and Miss Teen USA Resignations refers to events in the spring of 2024 surrounding a number of people employed by the Miss USA pageant, as well as 2023's two winners, Miss USA Noelia Voigt and Miss Teen USA UmaSofia Srivastava, leaving the organization. Online, discussions about hidden codes in the resignation announcement of each woman and speculation about the purpose behind their exits spread rapidly as the controversy went viral.

Background

The Miss USA Organization has conducted and televised a beauty pageant every year since 1952. It was owned by Donald Trump in the early 2000s, and following his sale of the organization in 2015, it underwent a series of ownership changes, with a new company, JKN Global, taking control in 2022.^[1]

In late April 2024, the social media manager of the organization resigned without giving a clear reason. Media outlets speculated that people participating in the Miss USA pageant, which has seen large amounts of turnover in the past few years, have signed NDAs.^[2]

Developments

Noelia Voigt Instagram Post

On May 6th, 2024, Noelia Voigt, the current Miss USA posted her resignation to Instagram. The post (seen below) received over 22,000 likes in the course of three days.^[3]

On TikTok, user @lextete earned over 130,000 likes and 1.7 million views over two days for posting on May 7th about how the initial letters of the sentences in Voigt's Instagram post spelled out "I AM SILENCED," arguing that this pointed towards a conspiracy (seen below, left).^[5]

That same day, TikToker @annanoellll (seen below, right) made a similar TikTok video pointing out the possible coded message of Voigt's post while also discussing the pageant's recent policy of taking direct control of the social media accounts associated with Miss USA away from the women holding the title, earning over 2 million views and 276,000 likes in two days.^[6]

UmaSofia Srivastava Instagram Post

Miss Teen USA, UmaSofia Srivastava, made a post on Instagram on May 8th, 2024, announcing her resignation as well (seen below).^[4]

In the caption of the post, which received nearly 7,000 likes in the course of a day, Srivastava wrote:

Thank you to everyone who has supported me these past two years, it has truly been an honor to represent you all. While this was certainly not how I saw my reign coming to a close, I am excited to continue my advocacy for education and acceptance, start applying to colleges, and share some exciting new projects on That’s Fan Behavior with those of you who plan to stick around 🥰 At the end of the day, I am so lucky to have had the privilege of this experience, but if this is just a chapter, I know that the story of my life will truly be incredible. Love, UmaSofia

Online Reactions

Fans of the pageant and fans of drama in general were fascinated by the events as they went viral in early May 2024. Reporting from celebrity gossip blog Perez Hilton speculated that the resignations were due to a toxic workplace environment at Miss USA and had been coordinated.^[2]

On X, user @focusfronting pointed out Srivastava's choice of using a quotation by Friedrich Nietzsche to introduce her resignation post (seen below) receiving over 5,500 likes in a day on May 8th.^[7]

The controversy was also widely covered in the media on May 9th, 2024. For example, Good Morning America discussed it that day and uploaded the segment to its YouTube channel, receiving over 82,000 views and 290 comments in 24 hours (seen below).

Search Interest

External References