In 1984, she won Miss America.
The first black woman in history to wear the crown.
Her win was met with racist criticism, sometimes in her face, but she kept her grace.
On the 10th month of her reign, at only 21, she suffered one of the worst scandals.
Nude photos of her were published by a magazine.
Yes, she actually took the photos. But it was before her reign while working as a photographer’s assistant.
The photographer had told her that the original would be silhouettes and no one would identify her and it would remain in the studio.
Upon realizing that the teenager he photographed 2 years ago was Miss America, he sold the pictures to the magazine.
People judged her.
Others shamed her.
Miss America officials told her she had 72 hours to relinquish her duties or be stripped of her title.
She decided to step down, and the first runner up took over.
Meanwhile, the magazine sold out and made about $14 million. The photographer’s payment for the photos was the highest the magazine had ever paid for a photo spread.
If it were now he’d probably be arrested.
Instead of accepting defeat, two years later, she released her debut studio album. It had pop hits.
Two other albums she made were commercially successful.
She’s one of the few who went from pageantry to become a Grammy-Winning singer, one that the world reckons with.
She ventured into acting in 1994 and it’s been hit movies back to back.
Her disney song “Colors of the Win” earned her an Academy Award for Best Original Song, a Grammy, and the Golden Globe Award.
She’s one of the celebrities today that can boast of a win or nominations by almost all the prestigious award bodies, including the Emmys, NAACP and Tony Awards.
She has done it all – Broadway, television, film, Super Bowl, RuPaul Drag Race. Every damn thing.
She is the first African-American spokesmodel for the multimillion dollar cosmetics brand L’Oréal.
To think her music career is still going hard.
Just last year, her song “Legs” debuted at no. 3 on Billboard’s Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales chart.
It was reported that she garners about 190K daily listeners on Spotify platform.
She is the most famous Miss America and most successful beauty queen of all time.
Unbelievably successful that Miss America publicly apologized to her 32 years later (in 2016) for what they did to her.
Her name is Vanessa Williams. A woman who persevered through criticism and global disgrace and regained her reputation.
The gist won’t be complete without mentioning her iconic song “Save the Best for Last”.
BTV reporting
