The Leader
Nina Davuluri on becoming the first South Asian to win the Miss America title, her initiatives in diversity and beauty standards, and her advice on building a more inclusive America
Nina Davuluri was the first Indian American to win Miss America in 2014. She is an activist, advocate, and educator when it comes to embracing diversity and breaking down beauty standards. Since her win, she has gone on to tour colleges speaking about colorism and her experiences as a first-generation Asian American. She has also gone on to release COMPLEXion, a series that explores colorism and how it affects the socioeconomic status of many along with the stories of those who struggle with these beauty standards.
We sat down and spoke with Nina about her experiences.
Walk us through your journey in pageanting.
I grew up watching Miss America. My entire family would watch, and it was something that I gravitated towards. Watching when I was younger, there was a part of me that felt I could never be on that stage. I didn’t have blond hair, blue eyes. I wasn’t what I saw in the winners.
I grew up classically trained in Indian classical dance, ballet pointe, jazz, and tap, so I loved performing. I think the talent aspect of Miss America certainly is what drew me to it. I was also very involved in my community, so Miss America was just a great way for me to continue to be involved in my community while having a voice and a platform. I think the biggest selling point though was that it’s a scholarship program. Miss America is advocacy and social impact based. So every contestant does walk away with scholarship money. When my parents heard that they’re like, okay, we’ll give this a shot.
I was 16 when I competed in and won my first pageant. I went on to the state pageant, the Miss Michigan teen competitions, and I ended up winning. I ended up doing an Indian dance. In the Miss America team, I placed first runner up, and for people outside of the pageant world it seems impressive. However, being first runner up is the most difficult spot because you know that you’ve just missed it.
I thought, I’m too Indian and maybe people don’t understand my talent.
I got feedback saying it’s hard to understand your talent, it’s hard to put a score on it, and no one’s really familiar with it. That was disappointing, but through pageanting, I earned $30,000 and was able to graduate from University of Michigan debt free.
I didn’t start competing again until after I graduated. I was born in New York, my family moved to Oklahoma and then to Michigan and then back to New York. So when I was back in New York, I felt I was at a place where I was ready to compete and I was ready to dedicate the time. There was so much of that first runner up in me that knew I had to give it a shot.
I competed for Miss New York twice; the first year, I was second runner up to Mallory Hagen, who won the title of Miss America. I remember I was watching at home hysterical because as excited as I was for New York to win, I felt I am never going to win Miss America now. What are the chances that Miss New York will win two years in a row?
“Consider going back to singing. America might not be ready for someone like you. You’re too Indian. Be more American,” someone had said.
I reached out to my judges from that first year, and I asked for feedback on my talent. Talent was the looming question mark in my head and I got mixed responses. Truthfully, some said it was beautiful to see your culture. Others didn’t understand it.
I had the opportunity to compete in both Michigan and New York. I chose New York because it is considered the melting pot of the world. And so if I’m hearing feedback like this from a state like New York, that was hard to take in.
Ultimately, it came down to if I was going to win this title my way. That was a very real struggle. There is no way that I can ever sit here and say that Indian dance is not a part of who I am. So for me, I had to stay true to myself. To me, performing my talent on the Miss America stage was like a win in itself. Winning the Miss America title was just icing on the cake. It was truly the moment when the entire country got to see who Nina was.
How did winning Miss America change your life plans?
There are certain constructs that you grow up around as an Asian American. For me, when I was in first grade, I was like, I want to be a doctor like daddy. So it was the only path I knew, and I didn’t feel that I was allowed to do anything else. I was good at math and science, but it wasn’t my true passion and I saw people who genuinely loved what they did.
I was always a performer, but I never considered that as a career. The entertainment industry is difficult and unstable. So any parent has valid concerns about their child entering that, but for me, my head didn’t even go there. I knew that Miss America would open doors to opportunities that could never be imagined before. If I did not win Miss America, I was going to med school and there was no alternative. I recommend looking for an alternative (laughs) but I will say that after I won Miss America, I knew that life would change and that I could actually follow a path that genuinely made me happy. I think my parents knew that it was coming. I told them a few months later after being crowned that I would not be applying to medical school and they weren’t surprised. I finally feel like I am able to do what I want to do. They’ve been supportive and I think that while I’m grateful for that, I recognize that some people still don’t have that from their families. It shouldn’t have to take winning Miss America to follow your passions.
Why is diversity something you’re passionate about?
I’ve been advocating for diversity my entire life. Essentially, I didn’t just wake up one day as Miss America and say, I’m going to promote diversity now and be the poster child for it. It’s something that I truly did start officially when I was back in high school in terms of activism and representation. I’m now in the era where we have Mindy Kaling, Lilly Singh, and Aziz Ansari. To see that growth is incredible.
But truly speaking, it took time to see someone who looked like me in mainstream American media. I also grew up in a very small predominantly white town in Oklahoma. I was asked questions, like if I worship cows, if I was going to have an arranged marriage, what the red dot means, and so on.
That was my entire life. And so for me I constantly just found myself correcting those stereotypes. Well, one, I feel like we also go through a process where we’re embarrassed and we don’t know how to start these conversations in that middle school period where you’re just trying so badly to fit in. And so for me, you starting Circles of Unity was how we actually change these conversations at a young age. How can children not feel this way in school, starting at those younger and younger ages? And so what I did was actually when I went to college, I went to University of Michigan, and that was the first time I was really introduced to what we call Brown Town. Lovingly, and I probably had maybe three Indian kids in my high school class. So really not very many. And so, you know, I just didn’t have a lot of Indian interactions.
When I went to college, I finally found a group where I was like oh my god you understand why my parents won’t let me go out, or why can’t date or why I have to keep my boyfriend a secret — things that my friends in high school didn’t understand.
We started a program at a local elementary school in Ann Arbor partnering with different campus organizations and we did a diversity day. Each classroom was a different country and children rotated between those classrooms and learned about a country. It was a very specific food, a language, or an instrument. It was very hands on where they’re really truly immersing themselves in the culture, not just having to sit through a lecture. And that’s the inspiration behind Circles of Unity.
How can we actually educate and break stereotypes from younger ages? That was a great way to start this conversation.
Since then, I’ve been able to speak with almost close to 55 colleges and universities and have activated them to also implement this program within their own communities. I hope that that is something that they will take on themselves because this has to exist. And who better to learn from than your peers who are also like minded to teach our youth? That’s how it started and it still continues.
You hosted and produced a reality show called “Made in America”. It resonated with young South Asian millennials because of the honest discussions about beauty standards and culture. As a second-generation Asian American, how do you navigate the cultural disconnect that exists between the younger generation and the older generation?
I feel like I’ve turned into an advice column over the years! (laughs) This is every university talk I go to, which I love. And again, these are only my experiences so I’m not trying to answer for all. But first, I’ll talk about Made in America. I learned about navigating production behind the scenes and working with networks. It’s just a real-life experience. And what I found really interesting about that show was that it was for an Indian-based network that was trying to engage millennial audiences. At the time, the people that were viewing this network were our parents' generation. So they were trying to get a new demographic.
They were trying to create new English content that was very relatable to the second, third-generation South Asian Americans. And so throughout that process, we created a show wondering how can we mentor young women and showcase them not just the one track light of a doctor or an engineer. None of these paths are wrong if that’s truly in your heart. It all depends on what you want to do. But, still, how can we help them navigate these conversations within themselves and within their families. That was key to me but I think first, you have to be able to recognize it with yourself. But then afterward, how do you communicate that to your family. That show did teach me a lot in terms of just production itself and behind-the-scenes.
But I think that the broader conversation and the only thing I can always tell people is that your parents genuinely want you to be happy. I can’t think of a single parent that doesn’t want their children to truly be happy in life, and I think that the issue does come down to communicating. If you can present to your family or your parents with a very solid plan of action, people respond better to having tangible things in front of them rather than flowery substances. That’s just a fact. And frankly, you should have the answers to the questions that your parents are going to ask you. Those are hard questions they’re going to ask you, and you have to ask those first within yourself and be able to address them with your family.
It is difficult, but the first step starts with addressing it yourself and knowing what you want. That doesn’t come easy. There are also lots of conversations that I remember having with my family.
After I won Miss America, we wondered what would happen in the years beyond and what’s next. And that’s a loaded question that I couldn’t answer genuinely — I can’t give them a tangible piece of paper with an outline because I didn’t have one. I didn’t have anyone who came before me to even ask for advice. It was uncharted territory.
And so I had to say that there are opportunities that will present themselves that I have to take now. And almost phrase it like school will always be there. I’m not saying that it’s not important. At that point, I was very much considering getting my MBA, which is still totally not off the table. I do want to say that school will always be there but there are certain things, like this reality show or working with the Obama administration, that aren’t going to happen in five years, and aren’t going to be there in five years. So recognizing that there are opportunities that I have to do now was a conversation that I had to have with my parents. And there is that fear of the unknown where I couldn’t list it out to them, but I think that’s also a piece of this, where you just have an open line of communication with them.
And honestly, that has to start with you. You can’t expect your family to sit you down and all of a sudden one day say, “Okay, we’re ready to talk.”
No, it has to start with us.
You talked about beauty standards in the past, and you actually have a new documentary Complexion out. Why did you produce the documentary as your form of advocacy and what advice would you give young Asian girls who struggle with beauty standards?
This is something that I grew up with my entire life. I would always hear comments, “Don’t go out in the sun, you’re going to get too dark”, “You’d be so much more beautiful if you were just a few shades lighter”, “You have nice features, but you’re dark” and the list goes on.
I think the hardest thing was that I saw it in my family. My mother is dark-skinned. My mom's sister is very light-skinned and I would see family members compare them. They would say things like, “Oh, you know, she’s so fair. She’s beautiful. It’s too bad that she’s dark.” Those were comments that were very much out in the open… And people just felt like they had the right to say these awful things.
I had just as many experiences along the way, especially because I would go to India every summer visiting my family there. I saw so many of my American friends who are spending hundreds of dollars on tanning packages and tanning products. Over here, I’m trying to stay in the shade the entire time and not go to the beach and things like that. But then when I went to India, I wouldn’t be able to play tennis outside.
The final experience that really just woke me up was when I won Miss America. The morning after I’d won the headline in India was “Is Miss America too dark to be Miss India?” That was it for me. That was the final straw. I couldn’t believe that as a society, it’s not a celebratory moment for Indian Americans and Indians around the world in general. While that pride was certainly there, there’s still this underlying “Is she beautiful for Indian standards?”
Society is very quick to tear down women, especially in terms of their physical appearances, more so than they are our male counterparts.
For me, I went into this competition, thinking about that little girl who is sitting at home watching TV, finally being able to say, “Wow, this year, Miss America looks like me.”
For India to post that on their headline was just appalling, and it was enough. Enough is enough.
I’ve been on my college tour throughout all of this. What led me to the documentary space was every single time I walked into a college or university, there was always a question about this. It was always, how do you feel about being dark-skinned, or what do you do when people make comments, or how do you handle your parents? This was just a conversation that I knew needed to happen, and no one was doing it. They were happening in small circles, but no one was doing it on a broader level. That’s kind of where Complexion really started. It was through those experiencing and knowing in my heart of hearts that people needed to talk about this and that the world needed to hear it.
This exists in every culture. It’s not just Indian culture.
Colorism is a part of racism, systemic racism, and unless we address it in every culture around the world and how it affects every community, we really can’t move forward.
We really can’t make that permanent change that I think so many of us are looking to hopefully have, especially given this time.
What is your advice for fighting this type of racism and empowering marginalized communities to speak their truth?
There are two parts to this conversation. In 2014, so much of it was in terms of handling these comments. There were xenophobic comments, being called a racist, a terrorist, or Miss 711. First and foremost at that time, it was really about being able to rise above it and use it as an opportunity to educate others. There was also a small part of this conversation of Oh, she’s Muslim she must be a terrorist and I don’t identify as Muslim, but even if I were, Why is that still part of the conversation? There were so many layers in terms of that just being able to educate and travel across the country and mobilize young people, especially in that college demographic area.
It was one of the few times that a South Asian person was in the media for that amount of time or overnight, I should say. I was able to address this on national and international news networks. It really created a conversation and started. That was six years ago. And now as I have been on this journey and continue to advocate. I think we’re in a time now in 2020 with everything happening that people are finally, ready to listen to actually listen and to take action. Those are two very different things than education. Yes. This is the first step, and I hope that’s happened. But some people still need to take that first step.
But then there’s also listening and taking action. And so for me, I think in terms of talking about my own community looking inwards, is the first step that we all have to do in our own communities and in our own homes. All of these conversations need to happen. But I think what specifically with Complexion because I’ve just done so much work in this area and arena for the past six years,
it is something that I feel confident speaking about. Like I said before, colorism is part of systemic racism and how do we take action?
The conversation has started and people are listening.
I think there are two really important things to recognize. The first is that when I was filming, I realized that we’re on social media and we have access to news, Instagram, Facebook, and all of these resources at our fingertips. Many people around the world do. But if you think about rural countries and rural villages, especially in places like India. There are young people and there are young girls I have spoken with and there are villages that I have been to that don’t have access. They don’t see the activism that is happening. They don’t see these positive messages that are going on in the world right now.
Having these conversations with them, what they do have access to, is they have access to Bollywood and advertisements. When you go into these villages, there are billboards of fair and lovely ads of skin lightening creams and you see some of the biggest Bollywood celebrities on those billboards. They walk into their store or their street, you know their side stand bodega. Whatever you want to call it. What they see are these skin lightening cream and products that are being sold to them.
I just remember when I was there, there was a young girl, there was a mother with her daughter who was probably seven years old. She had clearly been working in the villages all day and they stopped at the side stand and she bought a five rupee packet of skin lightening cream and she hands it to her daughter and she says to her, “So you don’t have the life that I have.”
As long as light skin is tied to success and elitism, it is the core of the problem. You can ban these products as much as you want, but the belief that still exists of white skin leads to better success, better health, better life in general, then things won’t change. So that belief has to change.
A huge part of changing that belief does tie into Bollywood. These are what people are seeing in those villages. There are some people who are educated who know better, but these rural communities that’s what they see. And obviously the industry has an incredible amount of responsibility to change this messaging. Also, the companies that make these products should stop manufacturing these products because we all know that they do not work.
There are two sides to this. They’re all interconnected and unless we start really taking action and coming together, which I think is something we’re seeing now. I hope and pray that we’re seeing now. I think that this is the time where finally America is waking up and people are ready. People are hungry for change, and I hope that continues.
The next chapter of the Complexion series is actually the Africa chapter. So we’re going to be sharing a few stories from the documentary. This is a small part of an obviously much bigger heavier conversation, but it is still part of the conversation.
Follow Nina on Instagram.
