A contestant at Sunday's Miss USA pageant sparked a Twitter frenzy of praise for her "normal body" during her appearance in the swimsuit portion of the competition.
Miss Indiana Mekayla Diehl, 25, made it to the semifinals but was eliminated before the top 10. She may have been ousted from the pageant, but she was easily the biggest star of the night. When she walked on during the swimsuit competition, fans swamped Twitter, excited to see a pageant contestant with her body type:
To clarify: I'm not using quotes on "normal body" to indicate anything other than the fact that this is the phrase I pulled from people's Twitters and should not be construed as a scare quote or anything like that.
It's always difficult to see the word normal used to describe anything, especially the female body. (I'm just glad they didn't call her plus-sized!) Diehl also offered her thoughts on being the poster girl for a normal body as well. "I'm OK with 'normal,'" said Diehl. "Whatever defines 'normal.' I guess it's better than being weird."