Kayla Martell, who is a Miss America contestant and the current Miss Delaware, suffers from alopecia areata and says she is entering the competition to raise awareness about the condition.
“People always assume when they see a girl like me who is bald, that she is either very, very sick, or just ageing. I am neither.”
The modern version of the Miss America competition demands that contestants champion an issue as part of their bid for the title. Martell’s choice was fairly obvious.
She first started losing hair when she was just 10 years old and was taunted about it while at school. She says that at first the hair came away at her parting and the bald patch then began to spread.
From the age of four, Martell wanted to enter beauty pageants and she believes that persisting in her efforts despite suffering from the auto-immune disorder has developed her resilience. She even wonders whether she would have achieved what she has without it.
Martell entered Miss Delaware three times, only emerging victorious after getting a hairpiece, which she has brought along to the Miss World final, along with four others which she will wear at various stages of the competition.