Kirsten Haglund

Kirsten Iora Haglund (born September 14, 1988) is a public speaker and president of the Kirsten Haglund Foundation who served as Miss America 2008. Haglund is the lead anchor of the "Morning Briefing" on Styrk.com, an online news network.

Haglund graduated from Walled Lake Western High School in 2006 and spent one year pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, Ohio. She took time off to fulfill her duties as Miss Michigan and prepare for the Miss America pageant. After completing her year of service, Kirsten continued to travel and speak on body-image issues and eating disorders, also having begun her own 501 (c) 3 non-profit foundation (the Kirsten Haglund Foundation) to provide treatment scholarships for women struggling with the illness. Kirsten lived for one year in Los Angeles, California, and then returned to school to finish her degree at Emory University, using the over $60,000 in scholarship she won competing in the Miss America Organization. She received a B.A. in political science from Emory in May 2013. In July 2012, she married Ryan Smith. She is a frequent commentator on politics, the millennial generation, women's and celebrity issues on Hannity, Red Eye w/Greg Gutfeld, Fox & Friends, and The Real Story on Fox News Channel, and Real News on The Blaze. She has also made guest appearances on panels on Huffington Post Live, HLN (TV channel), The Joy Behar Show, and on Fox Business News.

In other broadcasting work, Kirsten has appeared as a sideline correspondent for the 2012 and 2013 National Memorial Day Parades in Washington, D.C., televised in the DC Metro Area, conducting interviews with United States Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, actors Gary Sinise and Joe Mantegna and others. She also served as a correspondent for the 6ABC telecast of the 2013 "Show Us Your Shoes" Parade, as a part of the Miss America Organization's return of the pageant to Atlantic City, New Jersey. As parade correspondent, she hosted segments alongside Lee Meriwether, Miss America 1955 and Phil Laduca, and conducted interviews with Pageant and Bachelor host Chris Harrison and Good Morning America's Lara Spencer. She also appeared as a guest co-host for the hour-long 6ABC pre-pageant broadcast on September 16, 2013.

After winning the Miss Oakland County local title in 2006, Haglund competed in the Miss Michigan pageant and won in June 2007. She won a preliminary swimsuit award and at the conclusion of the final competition was crowned Miss Michigan. For her state talent, she performed "Adele's Laughing Song" from the operetta Die Fledermaus.

Haglund represented Michigan in the Miss America 2008 pageant broadcast on TLC from the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada on January 26, 2008. She won a preliminary swimsuit award on Wednesday night, becoming her state's first Preliminary Swimsuit Award winner since 1987. For her talent she sang "Over the Rainbow". At the conclusion of the live telecast, Haglund was crowned the 83rd Miss America. She succeeds Lauren Nelson, of Lawton, Oklahoma and is Michigan's fifth Miss America and her state's first for twenty years. At 19, Haglund was the youngest girl competing and the youngest Miss America winner since Kimberly Clarice Aiken took the title in 1993. Haglund's grandmother Iora Hunt represented Detroit, Michigan at Miss America 1944.

Her platform is eating disorder awareness, as she suffered from anorexia that began at age twelve. In fact, her body mass index was 16.29 (BMIs <18.5 suggest a person is underweight) at the time she was crowned.

During her first week as Miss America, Haglund appeared on Live with Regis and Kelly, ABC News Now, Inside Edition and Fox and Friends She spoke at Harvard University and for the National Press Club on her platform of Eating Disorders Awareness, and lobbied with the Eating Disorders Coalition on Capitol Hill for Mental Health Parity, speaking at a Congressional Briefing on her own personal battle and recovery from anorexia nervosa.

As part of her support of the Children's Miracle Network, the official platform of Miss America, Haglund served as National Goodwill Ambassador for the organization throughout 2008, visiting hospitals across the country, and supporting the organization's fundraising initiatives. She met with President Bush at the White House while participating in CMN's "Champions Across America" event.In the last week of her reign as Miss America, as a guest of the USO, she appeared in the Inaugural Parade for President Barack Obama, and attended the Commander in Chief Inaugural Ball.