Miss USA and Miss Teen USA Step Down Days Apart Due to Reported ‘Toxic Environment

On Friday, the social media director for the Miss USA organization, Claudia Michelle, stepped down, announcing her decision in a post to Instagram.

Three days later, the reigning Miss USA, Noelia Voigt, also posted on Instagram that she had resigned from the title of Miss USA 2023, citing her mental health.

Two days after that, UmaSofia Srivastava, who had been crowned Miss Teen USA 2023, also announced on Instagram that she was giving up her title.

What, one might ask, is going on at Miss USA?

According to the New York Post, a source who knows all three said they had coordinated their resignations.

“The decision was not easy. Noelia and UmaSofia are extremely dedicated people who worked incredibly hard for the pageant. The decisions were not taken lightly. They all decided to do this together,” the insider reportedly told the Post.

“They are afraid of speaking out more at this time because of the organization,” the anonymous source added. “They don’t want this to have any lasting harmful effect on their futures.”

Details about what, specifically, was at the root of the problem at Miss USA were somewhat sparse, and almost universally sourced anonymously, making their verification all but impossible.

Michelle, however, hinted at serious dysfunction at the highest levels of the organization.

Michelle, who said in her post that she had not signed a non-disclosure agreement as had Voigt and Srivastava and was therefore more free to speak openly, wrote of Voigt that she’d seen a “decline in her mental health” while working closely with her at the organization, and that she’d also “seen firsthand the disrespect towards Uma and her family.”

She said both title-holders had been “threatened” by the organization’s “social media rules and guidelines” — rules and guidelines that Michelle herself, as social media director for Miss USA, hadn’t even seen.

“I feel the way current management speaks about their titleholders is unprofessional and inappropriate; I disavow workplace toxicity and bullying of any kind,” she wrote.

“This toxic atmosphere is a serious concern,” a source close to the situation reportedly confirmed to the Post. “There is an urgent need for intervention at the leadership level.”

You can read their statements regarding their resignations below.

“How have we not prioritized mental health among title holders in light of what happened to Cheslie Kryst?” Dani Walker, a former Miss Montana and pageant coach, asked in a YouTube video posted Wednesday, speaking of a former Miss USA who committed suicide in 2022. “For me there is no valid excuse as to why Noelia should be resigning because of her mental health.”