Quick Facts
Biography
Mekayla Diehl is a beauty queen from Elkhart, Indiana who held the Miss Indiana USA title and competed in the Miss USA pageant in 2014.
Early life
Diehl was born in Elkhart, Indiana in 1988. She is descended from the Ojibwe tribe, a member of the Ontario-based Zhiibaahaasing First Nation through her mother.
Career
Diehl graduated in 2011 from Albion College, MI with a bachelor's degree of liberal arts in mass communication. In June 2012 she competed in the Miss Indiana 2012 pageant where she placed second runner-up and won the "Joy of Life" award. In October of that year she competed in the Miss Indiana USA 2013 pageant where she was a semi-finalist.
In October 2013 Diehl won the Miss Indiana USA 2014 title which qualified her to compete in the Miss USA pageant the following year. Diehl placed in the top 20 at Miss USA 2014. She is the first contestant of Native American descent to represent Indiana at the Miss USA pageant.
Diehl, who is 5 feet 8 inches (1.73 m) tall, has been praised for being a "normal", healthy size 4 and for not being skinny, a common stereotype of beauty pageant contestants. Nia Sanchez, the winner of the 2014 pageant, stated that Diehl is no different than the other athletic pageant contestants she competed against. "I felt like this year we had a really healthy class of girls, and that’s what the pageant is about, not being skinny and having the clothes fall off your bones, but being fit, healthy and active. And Mekayla is," she said. "We were at the gym working out together. She was telling me how she does different sports. We all do." Diehl has ignited a wave of positivity encouraging women to be healthy and not go to extremes of having unhealthy habits to be skinny.
Though Deihl is celebrated for being a healthy role model encouraging young women to be active and healthy, a few critics created backlash by stating that even though she represents something new she isn't normal. Their main argument was that the average American woman, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is 5-foot-3 and 166 pounds with a size 12 or 14 waist size and has a BMI of 33.
She received coverage from all the major networks, interviewed by Elisabeth Hasselbeck on Fox and Friends, The Today Show, Good Morning America, Entertainment Tonight. and WNDU