The newly crowned Miss America says she understands the hardships facing average women.
Speaking on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Monday, Mallory Hagan says she went to school and worked full time before winning Miss New York and clenching the Miss America crown.
The 23-year-old says she understands “what it’s like to do all these things day-to-day and still maintain a healthy lifestyle.”
Hagan was crowned Saturday night. She raised the issue of child sexual abuse in her contestant platform.
She tells GMA she looks forward to educating and advocating on the issue during her year reign.
Hagan moved from Alabama to New York City as soon as she became a legal adult. She lives in Brooklyn, the city’s most-populous borough
“Mallory was really dedicated. She just decided to get healthier,” her boyfriend, Charmel Maynard, 28, told The Post yesterday. “She did it the right way.”
Maynard said she lost the weight after winning the Miss Brooklyn title in 2010.
While she dedicated herself to becoming thinner, she made sure to not set a bad example by getting the waif look through starvation diets, her boyfriend said.
“She did not want to be rail-thin,” Maynard said. “She did it the right way: She did a lot of CrossFit, and she just ate a lot better.”
After her 2010 runner-up finish in the state pageant as Miss Brooklyn, Hagan wasn’t allowed to run for that borough’s title again.
So the Alabama native, 23, went after the Manhattan title. The bubbly Brooklynite never had to relocate from her Windsor Terrace apartment, since local pageant rules allow city residents to compete in other boroughs.
The newly lighter pageant hopeful then won the Miss Manhattan title and Miss New York state, before finally being crowned Miss America at the contest in Las Vegas.
“She loves Brooklyn,” a beaming Maynard said.
“That’s her home and where she worked so hard to get to this point.”
The proud boyfriend, who works at JPMorgan Chase, said he met his stunning gal pal at a Meatpacking District bar in 2010.
“I saw a very pretty girl, and I just went up and talked to her,” said the modest Casanova, who was born in Trinidad, raised in Atlanta and educated at Amherst College in Massachusetts. “We’ve been a couple ever since.”
Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz brushed off Hagen’s last-minute borough exchange, calling her Miss America victory a glorious moment for the County of Kings regardless.
“I only care where she lives, and she lives in Brooklyn,” he crowed.
“She is a lovely young woman with a sense of responsibility and maturity.”
Hagen’s proud neighborhood was thrown into a tizzy after the local darling won.
Hercules Kontogiannis, owner of Windsor Cafe on Prospect Park West near Hagan’s apartment, said she would come in and order “vegetarian egg-white omelets.
“She stands out. She was very nice,’’ he said.
“She would come in wearing relaxed gear, like sports stuff.”
A local bar, Double Windsor, offered a Brooklyn beer and an Alabama slammer shot in her honor yesterday.
Additional reporting by Amber Sutherland and Selim Algar.