Miss Utah USA Video: ‘Create Education Better’ Answer Rocks Miss USA Pageant

Miss Utah Marissa Powell fumbled the interview question posed to her by panelist reality TV star-turned comic actress NeNe Leakes about income inequality during Sunday’s Miss USA competition.

“A recent report shows that in 40 percent of American families with children, women are the primary earners, yet they continue to earn less than men,” Leakes began. “What does this say about society?”

Powell, 21, replied, “I think we can relate this back to education, and how we are continuing to try to strive … to….” After a pause that included a smile to the camera, as if to say ‘help’, she continued, “Figure out how to create jobs right now. That is the biggest problem."

“I think, especially the men are… um… seen as the leaders of this, and so we need to try to figure out how to … create education better. So that we can solve this problem," she added.

The 5’ 8’’ brunette pageant contestant is an aspiring singer, according to her Miss USA bio. She’s a member of Utah singing group Geniveve and has sung the national anthem for MLS team Real Salt Lake. In high school, she excelled at volleyball, which she continued to play at Westminster College before she transferred to Brigham Young University. Powell has also had success modeling, landing in Fitness magazine among other publications. She is a volunteer at Primary Children’s Medical Center and is also an ambassador for the foundation Healing Hands for Haiti.

Powell’s rambling and incoherent response caused her to outshine the competition’s eventual winner, Miss Connecticut Erin Brady, in the aftermath of the show. It also led to #MissUtah becoming the No. 1 trending topic on Twitter, beating out both the NBA finals and Jay-Z’s announcement of his upcoming album Magna Carta Holy Grail.

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