![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788887784_294_kprc_breaking.png\")
<\/p>\nHouston has a new reason to celebrate.<\/p>\n
Regan Hutsell, a Houston native and former Miss Texas, was crowned Miss America 2027 Sunday night, making history as the first woman from Texas to win the national title in more than 50 years.<\/p>\n
Hutsell is the fourth Miss Texas to ever win Miss America and the first Texas winner since Shirley Cothran took home the crown in 1975.<\/p>\n
The 99th Miss America competition was held in West Palm Beach, Florida, where Hutsell competed against representatives from all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n
Hutsell is also making history as the 10th Black woman to win Miss America and the first to win the crown while wearing her natural hair.<\/p>\n
The Houston native has spoken about the importance of embracing her natural curls and hopes her visibility will encourage young women to feel comfortable embracing their own appearance.<\/p>\n
Her victory also ends a three-year stretch in which Miss Texas finished as the first runner-up at the Miss America competition.<\/p>\n
Before entering the pageant world, Hutsell built a career as a professional dancer.<\/p>\n
She began dancing as a child and later became a Radio City Rockette at age 18. She also performed with the Houston Contemporary Dance Company, Bay Area Houston Ballet Theatre and Ballet Rhode Island before joining the Birmingham Royal Ballet in 2021.<\/p>\n
Hutsell\u2019s dance background was on full display during the Miss America competition. For her talent performance, she performed a jazz routine and earned the preliminary talent award. She also won a preliminary fitness award.<\/p>\n
Hutsell\u2019s community service initiative is called \u201cYour Body Is Your Home.\u201d<\/p>\n
The platform was inspired by her own experience with an eating disorder and the pressures surrounding body image in the world of professional dance.<\/p>\n
Through the initiative, Hutsell encourages people to develop healthy self-worth, positive inner dialogue and a healthier relationship with their bodies.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour value is never defined by appearance,\u201d is at the heart of the message behind her initiative.<\/p>\n
As Miss America, Hutsell will spend the next year representing the organization and promoting its mission of empowering women to lead with purpose.<\/p>\n
She also received a $50,000 scholarship with her victory. Hutsell has earned nearly $90,000 in scholarships through the Miss America program and is studying Health Sciences online at Liberty University. She hopes to become a physical therapist.<\/p>\n
Hutsell said she is honored to represent an organization focused on scholarships, service and opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI look forward to encouraging individuals of all generations to walk boldly in their purpose, pursue their wildest dreams, and never give up on themselves,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Miss America 2027 runners-up<\/p>\n
First runner-up: Shelby Bordelon, Louisiana<\/p>\n
Second runner-up: Kate Dimmett, Illinois<\/p>\n
Third runner-up: Sharlize True Trujillo, California<\/p>\n
Fourth runner-up: Evelyn Smith, District of Columbia<\/p>\n
For Houston, Hutsell\u2019s victory marks the return of the Miss America crown to Texas for the first time since 1975 and puts a Houston native at the center of the national spotlight.<\/p>\n
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Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Houston has a new reason to celebrate. Regan Hutsell, a Houston native and former Miss Texas, was crowned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57,149195,148876,149152,148878],"class_list":["post-429751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-houston-pageant-history","tag-miss-america","tag-miss-texas","tag-regan-hutsell"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}