Through the many struggles in my life, my faith is sometimes the only thing I have to hold onto. God was my only friend.
I believe giving back is one of the greatest life lessons we can teach our children; that the world isn't all about them, and that through our actions people will really discover what kind of a person we truly are.
I'm a person who likes to give 100 percent to everything I do. I want to be the best at my job and as a mother.
Being REAL means showing people who you are underneath all the TV make up too.
I learned that I had to work triply hard every time I started a new job in a newsroom to prove my value and worth.
I'm advocating for companies not to make women sign confidentiality clauses just to be able to come to work. I understand that companies need to keep some things secret - like business practices and trade secrets - but confidentiality clauses were never supposed to be keeping private what's happening to people within the workplace. It's a human right issue.
I believe every child is born with a gift from God - big or small - and that we should all make the most of our talents.
There are no guarantees in life, but I believe faith provides all of us with a foundation to live the best lives possible - knowing that there is a higher being who loves us and will never leave us.
We have rules in the house and a sticker chart for my kids to earn technology time. Maybe its because of the world I live in and work, that I don't see much of anything beneficial that comes out of social media for kids. Even though its how they communicate now, so you have to find the fine balance.
The challenging part of parenting is to stick to your ideals and not give in.
At my age I can handle people writing junk about me on social media, but I sometimes air "mean tweets" on my show to highlight how destructive this meanness and bullying is to young people. I know how devastating it is for a young person to be the victim of such ugliness.
I don't read all the junk. I joke if I did, I wouldn't get out of bed in the morning. But, Sometimes the comments over the top - really ugly. Many of them are critical of my looks, like the one that criticized my "thunder thighs." I get that a lot. Some of the tweets are too vulgar to repeat.
There's something about winning Miss America that brings out the snark.
Everyone is busy, but I believe it depends on what you prioritize. My husband and I teach Sunday School together at our church and are very involved.
Our faith is what inspires us to reach out and volunteer to help others. As a child my parents taught me the biblical charge, "To whom much is given, much is expected," and faith guides me that way. And I believe, especially in this day and age, it's vital that we provide our children with a foundation from which to build their lives - one that gives them a sense of purpose.
I never had becoming Miss America on my radar screen. But when I was 17, I decided to quit the violin and my parents were devastated.
Forcing victims of sexual harassment into secret arbitration proceedings is wrong because it means that nobody ever finds out what really happened.
I grew up a fat kid in a small town in Minnesota who was a tomboy and happened to play a mean violin. My goal was to be a famous concert artist some day.
Our daughter was the last in her class to get a cell phone and she had to earn it. She still doesn't have Instagram although she asks me for it every day.
I am raising my children with the Christian faith and life lessons I was taught. I am equipping them with all of the information and guidance as a parent and hope they will make sound decisions. The most important thing is to teach kids to stand firm in what they believe and not be swayed by detractors no matter what the subject matter.
Miss America gets a lot of flak, but the reality is that it is uplifting and aspirational - 50% percent of my points were based on talent.
Thanks to my upbringing, I always believed in myself and worked as hard as I could to get where I wanted to be. Nothing was ever handed to me.
I've learned that sometimes when people don't like what you have to say, and don't want to debate you on ideas, it's just easier to call you a dumb blonde from Fox News.
Gratitude needs to come back in a big way and I hope to encourage people to get involved.
I'm the ultimate organizer! My major at Stanford was "Organizational Behavior" so I love to multi-task and stay extra busy.
