A 23-year-old woman from Brooklyn, New York, has won the title of Miss America - beating out 13,000 other contestants including the pageant’s first autistic contestant and a woman with Tourettes.
Mallory Hagan won the beauty pageant on Saturday night after tap dancing to James Brown's 'Get Up Off of That Thing' in Las Vegas and answering a question about whether armed guards belong in grade schools by saying the nation should not fight violence with violence.
Hagan defeated Miss South Carolina Ali Rogers, who took second, and Miss Oklahoma Alicia Clifton, who finished third.
'Sandy may have swept away our shores, but never our spirit. I’m Miss New York, Mallory Hagan,' she declared as she introduced herself to the nation on Saturday night.

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