--- title: Miss America Misspells Jane Austen as Austin in Miss New York Cups Act description: Jane Austen was misspelled Jane Austin during the talent performance by Miss New York, Kira Kazantsev, at Miss America 2015. canonical: https://time.com/3375502/miss-america-miss-new-york-jane-austin-austen/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-15T04:26:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:13:10.840Z og:title: Miss America Misspells Jane Austen "Jane Austin" og:description: There was an author named Jane Austin though. og:url: https://time.com/3375502/miss-america-miss-new-york-jane-austin-austen/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt51402e0d615a119c/6986a346169ab0fe8327b288/miss-america-miss-new-york-jane-austin.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: miss-america-miss-new-york-jane-austin og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Miss America Misspells Jane Austen "Jane Austin" twitter:description: There was an author named Jane Austin though. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt51402e0d615a119c/6986a346169ab0fe8327b288/miss-america-miss-new-york-jane-austin.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Jane Austen Got Misspelled as 'Jane Austin' During Miss America  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Sep 15, 2014 4:26 AM UTC  Olivia B. Waxman  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Sep 15, 2014 4:26 AM UTC Kira Kazantsev may have become the third Miss New York in a row to be crowned Miss America tonight, but she may be most remembered for a typo during her talent portion of the pageant. As fun facts about contestants flashed across the screen during their performances, the tidbit “Loves Anything Jane Austin” was shown while Miss New York sang Pharrell’s “Happy” with a red cup (an act [popularized](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2mawaBrvFg) by Anna Kendrick in the movie about college a cappella _Pitch Perfect_). Assuming the graphic meant to say that Kazantsev is a fan of the _Pride and Prejudice_ author, the name should have been spelled “Jane Austen.” So now Twitter is [flooded](https://twitter.com/search?q=jane%20austin&src=typd) with sarcastic comments. We’d like to imagine the witty Elizabeth Bennet would have had something clever to say in the moment. That said, there _was_ an author named Jane Austin. [Jane Goodwin Austin](http://www.pilgrimhallmuseum.org/pdf/Jane%5FG%5FAustin.pdf) (1831-1894) was known for historical [novels](http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22052) about Plymouth Colony — think romances about the Pilgrims — and was even [friends](http://books.google.com/books?id=R8HA-TMdWG8C&pg=PA175&lpg=PA175&dq=%22louisa+may+alcott%22+%22jane+austin%22&source=bl&ots=vOldZ%5Fz-Jg&sig=VQxxPJICO0L1PY1MIBkHM%5FsnfIw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=42QWVPCeH-rlsATr84DQCQ&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=%22louisa%20may%20alcott%22%20%22jane%20austin%22&f=false) with Louisa May Alcott, who wrote _Little Women_. So maybe Kazantsev’s powers of literary namedropping are greater than the Twitterverse thinks. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3375502/miss-america-miss-new-york-jane-austin-austen/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3375502/miss-america-miss-new-york-jane-austin-austen/"},"headline":"Jane Austen Got Misspelled as 'Jane Austin' During Miss America","datePublished":"2014-09-15T04:26:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:13:10.840Z","description":"But wait, maybe they do mean Austin with an 'i'","url":"https://time.com/3375502/miss-america-miss-new-york-jane-austin-austen/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","miss america"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt51402e0d615a119c/6986a346169ab0fe8327b288/miss-america-miss-new-york-jane-austin.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. 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