Kayla Martell, the beauty queen from Delaware who started to lose her hair at the age of ten, has placed in the top ten of the Miss America 2011 beauty pageant competition.
Although the eventual winner of the competition – aired in the US last Saturday 15th January – was 17-year-old Miss Nebraska Teresa Scanlan, the youngest to win in 90 years, it was Kayla who garnered the most oppress attention throughout the preliminary rounds.
Kayla, 21, has alopecia areata, a female hair loss condition that first started to show itself when she was in the fifth grade at school. Despite her lack of hair, Kayla has entered and won numerous beauty pageants and eventually became Miss Delaware.
Thanks to audience voting in the America’s Choice category, Kayla became only the third ever Miss Delaware to reach the top ten of the national competition. She wore a series of stunning human hair wigs during the competition, but has competed at beauty pageants bald in order to raise awareness of alopecia areata.
Speaking just before the final Miss America showdown in Las Vegas, Kayla defiantly said:
“You can’t be defined and shouldn’t be defined by your hair,”