Lauren Nelson

Pageant titleholder bio
title=Miss Oklahoma 2006
Miss America 2007
photo=
nationalcompetition=Miss America 2007 (winner)
location= Lawton, Oklahoma
birthname= Lauren Nelson
eye color= Blue
hair color=Blonde

Lauren Nelson (born 1986) is a beauty queen from Lawton, Oklahoma who holds the Miss America 2007 title. Nelson is the second consecutive Miss America and sixth in the history of Miss America to hail from this state. [cite news|url= |accessdate=2007-02-04
title=Miss Oklahoma Lauren Nelson Wins Miss America 2007 Pageant
author=Associated Press
date=January 30, 2007
publisher=FOX News.com]

Nelson was Miss Teen Oklahoma 2004, and in this role, she performed at the 2005 Miss America Pageant. [cite web |url=http://www.missoklahoma.org/new/missokbio.htm |accessdate=2007-02-04
title=Lauren Nelson bio
publisher=Miss Oklahoma Pageant Scholarship Funds, Inc.] En route to Miss America, she won the Miss Oklahoma State Fair local title and then competed in the Miss Oklahoma pageant for the first time on June 11, 2006, and was crowned Miss Oklahoma 2006, for which she received a $16,000 scholarship. At age nineteen, she was the youngest contestant to become Miss Oklahoma.

Nelson went on to represent Oklahoma in the Miss America 2007 pageant broadcast on CMT from the Theatre for the Performing Arts on January 29, 2007. She won a preliminary swimsuit award on Thursday night, becoming her state's first Swimsuit preliminary award since 1955. At the conclusion of the live telecast, Nelson was crowned the 82nd Miss America. She succeeds Jennifer Berry, of Jenks, Oklahoma, in the first occurrence of consecutive winners from the same state since 1959-1960.

performer. Her Miss America talent was a vocal performance, and her platform issue is "Be NetSmart – Protecting Kids Online". She receives a $50,000 scholarship award along with the title.

Nelson recently teamed up with host John Walsh on the FOX television show America's Most Wanted to assist in the apprehension of potential child predators. Initial reports as of May 1, 2007, stated that she did not plan to return to testify against those predators that were apprehended, putting the prosecution's case in jeopardy. [cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/TV/05/01/undercover.beauty.ap/index.html|accessdate=2007-05-01|author=CNN.com|title= Miss America may not testify in sex sting cases] However, she appeared to change her mind later that day, and it is reported that she will testify against the perpetrators. [cite news|url=http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070501/ap_on_re_us/undercover_beauty_4|title=Miss America to testify in sex sting]

On January 17, 2008, Nelson appeared on "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" playing for the Miss America Organization. She won $175,000 before "dropping out".

References

External links

* [http://www.missamerica.org Miss America official website]
* [http://www.missoklahoma.org/new/missok2006.htm Miss Oklahoma 2006]
*cite web|url=http://www.missoklahoma.org/ |accessdate=2007-02-04
title=Lauren Nelson is the new Miss America!!!
work=Latest News
publisher=Miss Oklahoma Pageant Scholarship Funds, Inc.
* [http://www.amw.com/features/feature_story_detail.cfm?id=1691 Miss America Teams Up With America's Most Wanted story]
* [http://www.missamericakids.com/home.html Miss America Kids] website, offering a free child-safe web browser for children featuring Lauren Nelson