Could Miss Delaware Kayla Martell Be the First Bald Miss America?

Kayla Martell is stunning: with her perfect body, her pearly wide smile and what looks like a full set of blonde hair, she’s definitely beauty pageant material. As it happens, Kayla is bald – and she may just compete in Miss America without a wig.

Speaking with ABC just recently, Kayla underlined the desire to prove that beauty is more than just the attributes at first glance she seems to have, the blonde hair included.

She’s dreamed of becoming Miss America since she was 3, she says for the media outlet for the Conversations segment, and, at 10, when she started losing her hair, she decided she would not let that stand in her way.

Kayla, Miss Delaware, has a condition called alopecia areata, which, as she explains in the video below, means more or less that her body is “allergic” to hair.

To compete in beauty pageants, she shaves it all off and then puts on a wig. In real life, though, she hardly wears one because she’s not afraid to believe that she’s just as gorgeous without hair as she is with it.