+
Sign up for
The Upworthiest
Our top stories of the day delivered straight to your inbox.
upworthy

eating disorders

Health

Miss USA's 'genuine' answer in the 1997 Miss Universe pageant was funny, but so much more

"If you had no rules in your life for one day, and you could be outrageous, what would you do?"

@historyinmemes/X

Brook Lee's answer made the host and the audience burst out laughing.

Love them or hate them, beauty pageants have long been a fascination for people around the world. Every year, women compete in local pageants that funnel to state and national levels, then finally to the Miss World and Miss Universe competitions at the global level.

One of the most anticipated parts of a pageant, for both the lovers and the haters, is the interview portion. Instead of just watching them waltz across stage in a glitzy gown or a bathing suit, we actually get to hear from the beauty queens and judge how well they think on their feet.

The answers to the hosts' questions can range from smart to generic to occasionally disastrous, but one contestant's answer from more than two decades ago has gone viral because it was just oh-so-real.

Miss USA 1997, Brook Antoinette Mahealani Lee from Hawaii, was one of the finalists in the Miss Universe pageant when the host asked, "If you had no rules in your life for one day, and you could be outrageous, what would you do?"

Lee's facial expression during the question was adorable, and her quick answer said it all.

"I would eat. Everything. In the world," she said, emphasizing every single word.

"You do not understand," she said with a huge grin. "I would eat everything, twice."

Watch:

The audience loved it, the host's cackle sounded just as genuine as her answer, and Lee would go on to be crowned Miss Universe that evening.

However, her placing her hand on her stomach as she walked away in this video was a reminder that, even though it received a big laugh, her answer was rooted in the reality of the pressure these women feel to be thin. This was especially true in the 1990s, when "heroin chic" was coined to describe the desired look of models at the time. Women starving themselves to maintain a certain physique isn't actually funny, then or now.

In fact, Lee herself shared in a Hey Adam G podcast interview that her answer was actually a "political statement" in response to the controversy of her predecessor, Alicia Machado, gaining weight during the year of her Miss Universe reign in 1996. Donald Trump, who had purchased the Miss Universe that same year, made Machado's weight a public ordeal, allegedly calling her "Miss Piggy," making comments about how much she liked to eat and blindsiding her with dozens of cameramen at a gym in New York City to film her exercising.

Lee had even been asked directly about weight gain as a winner during the Miss USA pageant, with the question, "Miss Universe has recently been the subject of a lot of press attention about her weight. If this happened to you, how would you handle it?"

Lee said she was shocked that they would ask that question. Machado was sitting there in the audience when Lee was asked it, making for "a very weird moment." But her answer was exemplary:

“I think I would take a good hard look at myself, and I’d look from the inside out, and I would know I was the same girl that was crowned that day and it really didn’t matter what I look like on the outside, because I won for what I was in here. So if I go up, I go down, I get taller, I get shorter, my nose gets bigger, smaller, I’m still who I was when that crown was on my head, and I am a good representative no matter what.”

Lee said that by the time the Miss Universe question was asked, she was sick of all of the controversy over weight, so she wanted to be able to make a statement in some way if the opportunity presented itself. Her answer that she would eat-all-the-things if she had no rules for one day was her way of giving the middle finger

A relatable reaction to a ridiculous situation. Good on her for keeping it real.

From Your Site Articles
body image
Family

Stephanie Beatriz's super-relatable essay about 'disordered eating' is a must-read.

The 'Brooklyn Nine-Nine' star's essay about her eating disorder hits home.

Just weeks away from taking a new round of publicity photos, "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" actress Stephanie Beatriz shared her pre-shoot routine — and why she won't be following it this year.

[rebelmouse-image 19530671 dam="1" original_size="750x512" caption="Beatriz appears on a "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" panel during the 2013 Summer Television Critics Association tour. Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images." expand=1]Beatriz appears on a "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" panel during the 2013 Summer Television Critics Association tour. Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images.

"I’d stress. I’d look in the mirror and pick apart my body, my face. I’d zoom in on areas I hated, like my ass or my stomach. And then I’d start the obsessive food restriction and compulsive workouts," she wrote at InStyle, sharing her experience as a self-described "disordered eater."

She lays herself bare in the powerfully emotional piece, opening up about something so personal. For those who know her from TV, the story is perhaps not quite what you'd expect from the actress who plays Rosa Diaz, a tough-talking, no-nonsense detective. That's part of what makes her public vulnerability so powerful.

While the essay itself is extremely personal, Beatriz's experience with disordered eating is, unfortunately, not that unusual.

According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, at least 30 million people in the U.S. have an eating disorder. That's nearly 1 in 10 people in the country.

"Food was both the remedy and the punishment," Beatriz wrote, describing a fairly common aspect of some eating disorders. "I thought by controlling what I ate I was controlling my fate, when it was ultimately controlling me," she wrote, later adding that she also used food as a form of "self-medication."

Beatriz attends the 2015 Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles. Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images.

Beatriz is working hard to learn to love her body and build a healthier relationship with food.

In the essay, she talked about how hard she's worked to change her own outlook on life, and how important it was to make sure she's "seeing other women not as sizes in relation to [her own], but as beautiful, complex beings" and being more open about what she's going through with others in her life.

"Most importantly, I’m telling myself that I am perfect and lovely just the way I am, even if I start crying as I say it," she shared near the end of the essay. "I’m going to keep moving in the direction of my most authentic self by reminding myself every day that I’m worthy."

It's easy to look at celebrities as the embodiment of perfection, but they're real people with real challenges, too.

Body image expert and managing editor of Everyday Feminism, Melissa A. Fabello, says there are two reasons it's important for public figures to speak out about their body image issues, including their experience with eating disorders.

First, "because it helps to normalize the problem, rather than relegating it to secrecy," Fabello explains in a Twitter DM. Second, "because it puts into perspective how the people we're comparing ourselves to, like celebrities, don't look like that naturally either."

Case in point, here's how one fan reacted to Beatriz's story:

(See? How cool is that?)

Read Beatriz's story over at InStyle. For more information about eating disorders (including information on how to get help for you or a loved one), visit the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders website. We've reached out to Beatriz for comment and will update if we hear back.

From Your Site Articles
Family

To all who struggle with an eating disorder: an open letter about recovery.

Recovery is a process, and it's messy.

Recovery is not just about the food.

OK, it is a little bit.

Image via iStock.

It’s about the late-night pizza runs with your partner, the bonding over pancakes and omelets, and recounting the night before with your friends.

It’s about sharing a spoon and a pint of Ben & Jerry’s over a movie, or buying chocolate at the gas station just because you feel like it. It’s about trying something new when you’re out to dinner because you feel adventurous and you aren’t worried about the fat or calories.

Recovery is about donuts and chips and all the things you used to cringe about in your disorder.

Image via iStock.

It’s about noticing that your body is hungry, and even though you’re feeling tired, busy, or emotional, you grab something quick and easy so you don’t feel hunger pains like you used to. It’s nourishing your body not because you need to, but because you want to. It’s about loving food again.

But really, it’s also not just about the food.

Recovery is about being free from the bondage of rules and numbers and rituals. It’s letting go of things that aren’t just right. It’s taking a nap on the couch when the dishes aren’t done and the house isn’t clean and you haven’t gone to the gym yet because a nap is what you need. It’s actually resting when you are sick. It’s shedding your old beliefs about yourself and creating a new future.

It’s standing up for yourself.

Recovery is safety and control. Not the safety of dormancy and controlling of numbers like you used to.

It’s safety in knowing that no matter what happens in life, you will be OK. It’s safety in knowing who you are and being proud of it.

It’s not the illusion of control that you had when you were counting calories or losing weight. It’s knowing that without those behaviors, you are the one in the driver’s seat. The disorder doesn’t control you anymore.

It’s making choices that are healthy for you because for once, you are actually in control.

Recovery is taking risks and making mistakes. It’s vulnerability. It’s laughing too loud at a joke that wasn’t that funny to begin with. It’s honesty. It’s crying in front of your partner and getting a hug instead of running to the other room and burying your face in a pillow.

Recovery is experiencing life.

Image via iStock.

It’s going to more places than just work or home. It’s making coffee plans with someone you never really knew before. It’s taking your dog on a different route for her walk because sometimes routine is boring. It’s traveling, even though you’re usually a homebody. It’s riding a rollercoaster so fast that you lose your breath. It’s finding a new hobby because now you have the time to.

It’s finally “leaving the nest.”

Recovery is standing on your own and being OK with it.

It’s looking back at your time in treatment and being grateful for all the people you met and things you learned. It’s knowing that for now, that part of your life is over. It’s learning how to be there for yourself. It’s the fear and anxiety that comes when you become more independent and stray away from your outpatient team, but the pride that comes with feeling like you don’t need to see them as much as you used to.

Recovery is welcoming all emotions and committing to growth. It’s honoring the human experience and vowing to live in the present moment. It’s experiencing all of your emotions, even if they are uncomfortable. It’s being rational.

Recovery is a process, and it’s messy.

It’s waking up every day with a commitment to do the best you can, and letting go of expectations. It’s being patient and trusting that wherever you are in this moment is exactly where you are meant to be. It’s seeing recovery as a journey and not a nuisance. It’s not wishing you were further along or somewhere else — it’s meeting yourself where you are.

It’s looking back at the past and being able to say, “Wow, I may not be where I want to be yet, but I sure have grown.”

Image via iStock.

Sometimes, it’s also relapse and slips and intermittent hospital stays for “tune-ups.” It is not contingent on where you are financially or physically. It’s not one event, but rather a series of happenings over time. It’s admitting that you are one human being — one of many human beings — who are just living their lives the best they can.

Recovery can be book deals and song-writing and motivational speaking to massive crowds, or it can be a quiet confidence that you carry with you every day. You can tell people you are in recovery and be proud of it, or you can move on as if the disorder never existed.

That’s the amazing thing about recovery: There are no rules.

Recovery is choosing to no longer be a victim, saying enough is enough, and doing the work, over and over and over, until it feels natural. Recovery is not unattainable, but don’t be confused: Recovery is not something given to us. It’s not passive in the least. It is brave. It is hard. It is worth it.

To all who struggle with an eating disorder, there is a whole other world out there waiting for you. Please, come visit.

Trending Stories