23-year old Nicole Kelly is the new Miss Iowa. She was born without a left forearm, but she's never let it get in the way of her ambitions. She writes:
I was born without my left forearm. (Although, when people ask me what happened to my arm, I like to ask, "Well, what do you think happened?" My favorite explanation to date has been that it was bitten off by a shark…a perfect explanation for someone from Iowa.) As I grew older, I learned to offset the initial stares I received from people with an outgoing personality that would not give in to "No." This meant that I tried everything! From baseball, to dance to diving, there was nothing I would not try. I found my passion within a world where I was giving people permission to stare…the stage.
So progressive and yet so shallow.