This Beauty Queen Quits Pageant After the Pageant Owner Told Her to Skip Meals

“If you want to hold an international beauty contest, you should see the international beauty.”

By: Emily J

Miss Iceland 2015, Arna Ýr Jónsdóttir, entered the Miss Grand International beauty contest in Las Vegas with high hopes. Then, she quickly decided to quit after she got an unsettling email from a spokesperson of the pageant owner, Nawat Itsaragrisil. The message instructed her to start skipping breakfast, have salads for lunch, and drink only water until the contest. 

After receiving the message, the 20 year old beauty queen decided to quit the competition. “if the owner of the contest really wants me to lose weight and doesn’t like me the way I am, then he doesn’t deserve to have me,” she told the Iceland Monitor. 

“Yes, my shoulders are a bit broader than the other girls, but that is because I was a member of the Icelandic national athletics team and I am proud of that.” Arna then said she doesn’t take the comments to heart and she knows she is fine the way she is. 

As for Mr. Itsaragrisil? Arna wasn’t going let him get away with that demeaning message. She replied with a handwritten letter saying how ridiculous the owner’s original message was and told Nawat Itsaragrisil that if he wanted to “hold an international beauty contest [he] should see the international beauty” (how’s that for body positivity?!) 

Arna has been much more active on social media since she decided to depart from the Miss Grand International beauty pageant. She has been posting more body positive images captioned with her own inspirational quotes (which you can see below!). You go, Arna!