Brooklyn’s Miss America: Her journeys from small town girl big city star
LAS VEGAS — From a hometown of 26,000 people to an adopted home borough of 2.6 million, Miss America’s story includes a journey from a small town to the big city — but it doesn’t start there.
Mallory Hagan, 23, moved from Alabama to New York City as soon as she became a legal adult, and though she says she left because “I needed to find myself,” it turns out she knew who she wanted to be all along.
“When Mallory was like 13 years old she was sitting on my deck and said, ‘Miss Tina, my goal is one day I’d like to grow up to be Miss America,'” said Tina Gunnels, a neighbor from Opelika, Ala., on Sunday. “She accomplished that goal.”