One of my Miss America judges called me a "God-clutcher" way back when because I spoke about my faith being an important part of my life during my interview.

In our family, at this point,[Sunday School] its not a choice for my kids. It's a duty for us as parents to give them faith as a foundation and hope that when they bemuse older teens and young adults they will choose the same thing for themselves.

Miss America gets a lot of flak, but the reality is that it is uplifting and aspirational - 50% percent of my points were based on talent.

I learned that I had to work triply hard every time I started a new job in a newsroom to prove my value and worth.

Gratitude needs to come back in a big way and I hope to encourage people to get involved.

I've learned that sometimes when people don't like what you have to say, and don't want to debate you on ideas, it's just easier to call you a dumb blonde from Fox News.

We're not going to fix the sexual harassment epidemic unless we can acknowledge that this is not a women's issue, this is a man's issue. The burden should not be on the shoulders of women only to solve this, because we can't do it alone and it's not fair. We're seeing now the tsunami of all these women coming forward, which is such a blessing. But the tipping point will be when men in the workplace decide to be our allies.