Hannah Brown is speaking candidly about the dark side of the pageant industry.
The former Miss Alabama USA revealed how beauty pageants caused her to suffer from anxiety and depression during her appearance on the latest episode of Facebook Watch’s “At Home with the Robertsons”.
While joining the former “Duck Dynasty” stars at their Louisiana home, the 26-year-old “Dancing with the Stars” winner looked back on an “objectifying” conversation that she once had with a pageant director.
“I had a director of a pageant, she emailed me a picture of another girl’s body and said ‘I need you to look like this in your swimsuit before this time’,” recalled Brown.
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Revealing how the experience negatively impacted her mental health, the former “Bachelorette” continued, “It killed me, it really did. And I would go a year without eating carbs, I would y’know…it really messed with me a lot and I dealt with some anxiety and depression because of it.”
Sadie Robertson also disclosed some of her personal experiences of objectification within the modelling world.
“I did modelling for a little bit – it was so hard, like you said because people would say things…I remember a guy came and grabbed my side and he said ‘Yeah if you would just lose like 10 pounds you’d look like a real model,’” she remembered.
“And she was like tiny,” added her mom, Korie.
Brown insisted that pageantry isn’t always negative, however, explaining how it taught her how to lose graciously and win with a humble spirit
Looking back on winning Miss Alabama USA, Brown shared, “It’s probably one of the most proud, surreal moments of my life, even from winning ‘Dancing With the Stars’ or ‘Bachelorette’ because that was so authentically me. I didn’t have to be anything that I wasn’t, and that’s when I won.”
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She added, “So I feel like for me that was like a really cool experience that I needed to have. Don’t try to be a B grade version of something else, be yourself and that’s when you’ll have those moments.”
