Sunday Jan. 25, the Miss Universe Pageant aired on NBC. The outcome of the pageant had many in an uproar over Miss Colombia, Paulina Vega, taking the crown.

When Miss Jamaica, Kaci Fennell, stepped onto stage, it became apparent she was a crowd favorite.Throughout the show her name was trending with positive tweets and posts on multiple social media platforms. Fennell was a standout due to her nontraditional pageant hairstyle, a closely cropped pixie cut, and striking beauty.

Despite this, Fennell was fourth runner up losing the crown to Vega. As Vega was crowned Miss Universe she was not only booed by the people in the audience but faced major negativity on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Soon after coming in fourth, viewers began to speculate it was due to her short hair and Jamaican heritage that Fennell was not crowned. Others said it was due to financial reasons: Jamaica not investing enough money into the pageant because of their currently weak economy.

The Miss Universe pageant, owned by Donald Trump, has faced a fair share of controversy before even this incident. Miss Universe 2004, Jennifer Hawkins from Australia, almost had the crown taken after nude photos of her were made public.

Even more recently Miss Lebanon and Miss Israel faced backlash when they appeared in an Instagram photo together. Their two respective countries having been at war with each other since 1948. A similar situation occurred in 1993 between pageant contestants of those countries and ended with Miss Lebanon being stripped of her title for appearing in a photo, smiling, alongside her Israeli contender.

The Miss Universe pageant world is obviously more than beauty and speeches, with politics playing just as much a part in the show. Now, although Vega has the crown, Fennell broke the mold of what is typically viewed as a beauty queen. Thus making her a favored household name.

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