--- title: Miss Michigan Calls Out Flint Water Crisis at Miss America description: Miss Michigan 2018 used her introduction at the Miss America pageant as a way to highlight the Flint Water crisis. canonical: https://time.com/5391830/miss-america-flint/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-09-10T18:19:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:47:14.078Z og:title: Miss Michigan Calls Out Flint Water Crisis at Miss America og:description: Here's what she had to say og:url: https://time.com/5391830/miss-america-flint/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd7b82d8a7df424d8/698939d8929fad2b82bf18a9/miss-michigan-emily-sioma-calls-out-flint-water-crisis-at-miss-america-pageant.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 2019 Miss America 3rd Night Preliminaries og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Miss Michigan Calls Out Flint Water Crisis at Miss America twitter:description: Here's what she had to say twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd7b82d8a7df424d8/698939d8929fad2b82bf18a9/miss-michigan-emily-sioma-calls-out-flint-water-crisis-at-miss-america-pageant.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Miss Michigan Used Her Miss America Pageant Moment to Call Out the Flint Water Crisis ## Video: Flint: An American Crisis [Watch (HLS stream): Flint: An American Crisis](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Rm6GoBRg.m3u8) (4:20)  _Published 2016-03-04_  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Sep 10, 2018 6:19 PM UTC  ATLANTIC CITY, NJ - SEPTEMBER 07:Miss Michigan 2018, Emily Sioma walks the Red Carpet during the Eveningwear portion of the 3rd Night of Preliminaries at Atlantic City Boardwalk Hall on September 7, 2018 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. (Photo by Donald Kravitz/Getty Images) ATLANTIC CITY, NJ - SEPTEMBER 07:Miss Michigan 2018, Emily Sioma walks the Red Carpet during the Eveningwear portion of the 3rd Night of Preliminaries at Atlantic City Boardwalk Hall on September 7, 2018 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. (Photo by Donald Kravitz/Getty Images)Donald Kravitz—Getty Images  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Sep 10, 2018 6:19 PM UTC The 2018 [Miss America pageant](http://time.com/5391279/nia-imani-franklin-miss-america/) may have eliminated [the swimsuit competition](http://time.com/5387623/miss-america-protest/), but there was plenty to talk about on Sunday night when contestant Miss Michigan, Emily Sioma, used [the pageant stage](http://time.com/5303443/miss-america-swimsuit-competition-history/) as a way to highlight the dire Flint water crisis. Upon getting her brief moment to introduce herself, Sioma called out the lack of clean drinking water for her home state: “From the state with 84% of the United States’ fresh water but none for its residents to drink, I am Miss Michigan, Emily Sioma.” Sioma’s move to raise awareness of the Flint water crisis was well-received on social media, where many praised her decision to center the issue. > [](https://twitter.com/maybealexislost/status/1038958514604068866) > [](https://twitter.com/DeFede/status/1038959817870716928) > [](https://twitter.com/JSchipperWDRB/status/1038960056769933314) > [](https://twitter.com/shaunking/status/1038973300507140101) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5391830/miss-america-flint/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5391830/miss-america-flint/"},"headline":"Miss Michigan Used Her Miss America Pageant Moment to Call Out the Flint Water Crisis","datePublished":"2018-09-10T18:19:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:47:14.078Z","description":"Here's what she had to say","url":"https://time.com/5391830/miss-america-flint/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd7b82d8a7df424d8/698939d8929fad2b82bf18a9/miss-michigan-emily-sioma-calls-out-flint-water-crisis-at-miss-america-pageant.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd7b82d8a7df424d8/698939d8929fad2b82bf18a9/miss-michigan-emily-sioma-calls-out-flint-water-crisis-at-miss-america-pageant.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"2019 Miss America 3rd Night Preliminaries","caption":"2019 Miss America 3rd Night Preliminaries","creditText":"Donald Kravitz—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5391830/miss-america-flint/","name":"Miss Michigan Used Her Miss America Pageant Moment to Call Out the Flint Water Crisis"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Flint: An American Crisis","description":"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Rm6GoBRg/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-03-04T19:54:02.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Rm6GoBRg.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5391830/miss-america-flint/","duration":"PT4M20S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5391830/miss-america-flint/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```