Soldier, beauty queen, skydiver, boxer, opera singer, hunter, M-16 and archery marksman: Sgt. Theresa Vail is my bad@$$ hero.

Sgt. Theresa Vail. Courtesy People Magazine

It’s been a while since I’ve been interested in a Miss America contest. It’s just not something I really was ever able to get behind… I’ll be honest, probably because it’s not violent enough. I mean, if the girls had to run combat missions or do a “Top Shot” competition, I’d be totally on board. The world needs more beautiful badasses.

Enter Sgt. Theresa Vail, 2013’s Miss Kansas. This girl makes me feel like I was really slacking at 22. Heck, I’m really slacking now.

A lot of people are making this about the fact that she’s baring her tattoos in the swimsuit competition. But her tattoos are things that actually mean something to her, not just things she thought were pretty. I love her answer to the questions about it: “Why am I choosing to bear my tattoos? Reference A; my platform! Empowering women to OVERCOME stereotypes and break barriers. What a hypocrite I would be if I covered the ink. With my platform, how could I tell other women to be fearless and be true to themselves if I can’t do the same? Now, had my platform been something entirely different, maybe the tables would be turned. Maybe. But I am who I am, tattoos and all.”

But to me, what it’s about is a girl who has grabbed life by the horns. No, she’s not your typical Miss America contestant. She skydives and boxes and is a marksman with a bow and arrow and an M-16. She’s been to boot camp. This girl is everything you DON’T think of when you think of Miss America.

Because of that, especially in war time, I think she does represent a really important, beautiful part not only of America, but of what feminism really is. As much as I hate the word “feminism,” because it usually comes with a battleship-sized chip on the shoulder of said “feminist,” I think Sgt. Vail is exactly what feminism would be in its purest, most unadulterated agendaless form: She’s not letting anything stop her because she’s a girl. She’s not backing down from anything in life that she wants to do because it defies gender stereotypes. And in her existence as probably a bigger badass than most of us know, she’s still not afraid to go do something girly, like be in a pageant.

Fun fact: When she found out that she wasn’t allowed to do archery as her talent, she learned a Pavarotti song in a day… and she’d never sung opera in her life before that. 

I love this girl. I want to grow up and be just like her. No matter the outcome of the pageant, this is MY Miss America.