The Miss Latina Canada Magazine

2009 winner of Miss America, was 20 year old Katie Stam of Indiana. In a live televised broadcast from Las Vegas, Nevada, Katie was took the crown as part of the season finale of the the Miss America reality series 'Countdown to the Crown'.

Katie had been feeling ill during the compeition, and had even lost her voice. However, she was on medication and able to have some rest before she competed at the final event.

Katie won a $50 000 scholarship as part of her prize. She intends to use it towards graduate school with a dream of becoming a news anchor.

Miss America has had significant trouble keeping ratings up on television and have lost several television contracts. Their last agreement has been with TLC for 2 years, and it has not been yet announced if they will be preceeding with a renewal in the agreement.

Mariana Bridi, this year's Miss World Brazil, unexpectedly passed away as a result of a terrible infection. What originally began as a urinary tract infection escalated to the model's hands and feet having to be amputated, and eventually the end of her life.

The urine infection was extremely resistant to medication, and in an effort to save her life from the rapidly spreading infection doctors decided to amputate her hands and feet but unfortunately the infection took her life.

Mariana's goal was to be successful in the modelling world, so that she would be able to assist her family in living a better life. From a poor background that struggled to make ends meet, Mariana was living the dream of many young Brazilian girls.