Miss America Runner-Up Has An Important Life Goal

You may know her as a violinist, or you may know her as the woman who gave a bold and kickass answer during the Q&A portion of the Miss America pageant. But now it's time to give a new title to Miss Mississippi Hannah Roberts: First runner-up to Miss America 2016. She came in second place to Miss America (Miss Georgia) during Sunday night's telecast of the pageant after wowing the judges in the swimsuit round, the talent portion where she played the violin, and the Q&A where she eloquently and fiercely answered a question about Kim Davis with seconds to spare. But there's more to Roberts than just her great run on the pageant competition.

Roberts is originally from Mount Olive and competed as Miss University of Southern Mississippi in the pageant where she did win the crown, according to the Clarion Ledger. The newspaper states that as a child, Roberts never believed she would one day compete for Miss America, as she said she stayed in the "awkward stage for a long time." Once she grew up, Roberts graduated from University of Southern Mississippi as a Honors graduate in biochemistry where she was nicknamed "Chemistry Queen." While competing for Miss America, one of her voiceovers revealed that she had been accepted into medical school, but she deferred for a year in order to compete for the Miss America crown.

When it comes to competing in pageants, Roberts runs on a platform called "Pages For Love," for which she has helped donate more than 25,000 books to children's hospitals, shelters, and schools. After winning the title of Miss Mississippi, Roberts told MS News Now with that in 11 years time, she hopes to be a pediatric plastic reconstructive surgeon. "We actually don't have one in Mississippi right now. So I would love to do residency and come back and work in Mississippi and serve the children in this area who have cancer, have been in car accidents or born with birth defects," she said.

Considering her intelligence, poise, talent, eloquence, and clear willingness to help others, I can't help but be confident that Roberts will conquer medical school and get that dream career. We need more people in the world who have a public platform to stand up for what they believe in and give back — and doing that while rocking fierce fashion like Roberts did on Sunday night is just a bonus.

Image: Ida Mae Astute/ABC