At 2, Her Parents Were Told She’d Never Speak Clearly. 20 Surgeries Later, She’s Singing at Miss America (Exclusive)
At 2, Her Parents Were Told She’d Never Speak Clearly. 20 Surgeries Later, She’s Singing at Miss America (Exclusive)
Tabitha ParentWed, September 2, 2026 at 5:03 PM UTC
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Sophia Wootten will compete at the 99th Miss America competition this month, where she will represent the state of Georgia.Credit: sophiawootten/Instagram (2) -
Miss Georgia Sophia Wootten, born with a cleft and craniofacial differences, underwent 20 surgeries over 20 years and will compete on the Miss America stage on Sept. 6
Through musical theater and singing, the pageant queen found her voice; now she advocates for cleft care as Miss Georgia
If she wins the title this weekend, Wootten hopes to inspire others at Miss America by sharing her story and championing representation
When Sophia Wootten was two years old, her parents were told that she might never speak clearly.Wootten was born cleft-affected and with other craniofacial differences and started undergoing surgeries to correct those differences at just four months old. “[My parents were told] I might as well be put in a school for the deaf because that is where I would belong the best at that point,” she tells PEOPLE.At a young age, Wootten started speech therapy. Admittedly, she recalls being a “little bored” with the process. So her parents put her in voice lessons instead.
“Through it all, I fell in love with musical theater. I learned how to tell stories, but not necessarily my own,” she says.
Sophia WoottenCredit: sophiawootten/Instagram
While her first surgery, conducted when she was 4 months, repaired some of the cosmetic differences caused by her cleft, Wootten explains that “structurally” there was still “so much to fix.” Ultimately, Wootten, now 20, underwent 20 surgeries in 20 years.“When I came back [from the first cleft repair surgery], my parents were actually questioning my doctor and joking, “Is this the same kid?’ ” she says.
Wootten also explains how her surgeries and growing up with a craniofacial difference impacted not only her, but her family. As one of four siblings, Wootten acknowledges how her medical treatments and recovery interfered with her siblings’ summers.“I do look back at how this affected more than just the child going through it,” says Wootten, who is a youth advocate with Smile Train, a nonprofit organization providing global cleft care for affected individuals and their families. “That’s why Smile Train is such a great partnership because they look at the whole group,” she says, referring to her own experience.
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Working as an advocate for the organization and others supporting individuals with cleft-related complications has empowered Wootten to share her story.“As I stepped into the Miss America opportunity, I learned to embrace my own story and tell even the smallest of details because then that’s where I can have the most impact,” she says.One of her biggest regrets, in fact, is not sharing her story sooner, says Wootten. She shared the same sentiments with the judges during her private interviews in the lead-up to the Miss America competition, which is set to take place on Sunday, Sept. 6, at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Fla.Contestants from all 50 states, as well as Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, will take the stage for the 99th crowning of the Miss America title holder during the country’s 250th year. Last year’s title holder, Cassie Donegan, will crown her successor.
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“Like I said, I did theater, so I was telling stories like Les Misérables and Beauty and the Beast and whatever shows I was doing at the time, but it was never my own,” she says. “And then when I got to tell my own story, I realized the real impact in doing so, not just in how I carried myself and how I was able to let go of some of the bullying I went through as a child, and kids are so mean when they recognize a difference.”
Sophia WootenCredit: sophiawootten/Instagram
On Sunday, Wootten will take the stage at Miss America, where she will represent Georgia. There, the 99th Miss America will be crowned.Wootten says that, if given the chance to wear the national crown, she hopes to make representation the core of her mission.“Because of my cleft, I had eustachian tube dysfunction, and now I wear two hearing aids, and they are pink and sparkly because those are my two favorite things,” she tells PEOPLE, smiling. “I basically navigate the world with communication differences and hearing loss, but that makes it so much more interesting as I travel as Miss Georgia.”Just five minutes after being crowned Miss Georgia, Wootten recalls being approached by former Miss Georgia Patricia Ford Reeves and her young daughter, Ruthie. “I was talking to [Ruthie], and I noticed something pink in her ear, and I bent down, and I said, ‘You wear pink hearing aids.’ And it was literally I was still in the whirlwind of being crowned, and I got to pull one of mine out, and I got to tell her, ‘I do too.’ ”
Sophia Wootten.Credit: sophiawootten/Instagram
She’s carried a three-word mantra through her journey to Miss America: “You belong here.”
While the representation she will inevitably bring to the pageant as a result of her story is a first for the organization, Wootten’s advocacy extends far beyond the appearances she makes and the support she provides to organizations serving cleft-affected individuals and those with craniofacial differences. She’s currently pursuing pediatric audiology.
“I’m getting to be a doctor in the field that I was once a patient,” she says. The 99th Miss America, as well as all the state titleholders that will walk alongside her this year, have a “very important role to fulfill,” says Wootten.
“We are honoring the legacy of this organization, but at the same time, we are moving into the modern era of it, which is so exciting because we get to empower young women more and more to believe in what they truly can do and what they are capable of,” she says.“I do have to say the most exciting part of all of this has been the sisterhood. I’ve realized that every single woman here has been through something and we’re all working on something, but then we’re also equally deciding to compete in an organization that empowers women.”As she takes the stage during the preliminary rounds at Miss America this week, Wootten plans to highlight her singing during the talent portion of the competition.“As I stepped into the Miss America opportunity, I learned to embrace my own story and tell even the smallest of details because then that’s where I can have the most impact,” she says.
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Source: “AOL Entertainment”
