She knows what it feels like to be seen but not heard.
Former Miss New York Thatiana Diaz, 31, isn’t surprised that the Miss USA organization is falling apart.
“This was a long time coming,” she exclusively told The Post on Thursday.
“You have all these different personalities and so many ways in which you’re being pushed and pulled and being told what to do,” Diaz added. “That really does affect your mental health.”
Her ultimate message: “There are human beings under these crowns.”
Diaz’s comments echo Monday’s shocking announcement by Miss USA Noelia Voigt that she was relinquishing her crown seven months into her reign, citing mental health challenges — and making her the first title holder in the pageant’s 72-year history to step down voluntarily.
Concerned fans on Instagram even flagged that the first letter in each sentence of Voigt’s resignation spelled out a message: “I AM SILENCED.” Sources say it was on purpose.
Then, just a few days later, 17-year-old Miss Teen USA UmaSofia Srivastava — formerly Miss New Jersey Teen USA — also quit, saying in her statement that her personal values “no longer fully align with the direction of the organization.”
Now Diaz, crowned Miss New York in 2015, has re-entered the pageant-world spotlight to open up about problems she faced, some of which parallel those of Voigt and Srivastava.
Diaz’s time in pageants and the year she spent as Miss New York cemented some deep-rooted issues with her body and brand image — as well as other people’s opinions of her — that took years to overcome.
“You have so many people dissecting you and judging you. It’s not just the judges on that day,” she told The Post. “I wasn’t prepared for all of that.”
Accusations of bullying and harassment within the Miss USA organization — its current President and CEO, fashion designer Laylah Rose, took over amid another scandal in 2023 — have rocked the franchise
They’ve also shocked the public — but not Diaz.
The Dominican American beauty queen said she felt tokenized and reimagined.
“I just felt like there was so much more to me, and they were trying to sell me as this, like, hot, spicy Latina,” she said, sharing how the organizers pushed her to wear red to “bring out the Latina” in her and “make up a trauma-filled story.”
“I wasn’t comfortable with that,” insisted Diaz. “I did feel essentially bullied.”
Diaz competed in her first pageant when she was 16 years old as her parents encouraged her to engage in extracurricular activities that would allow her to develop interpersonal skills and appreciate the advocacy aspect.
Diaz, who won the title of Miss Teen New York in 2010 en route to nabbing the big state prize five years later, credits her time in the pageant world with forming strong friendships with other contestants — some of whom stood by her side on her wedding day in 2022 — and helping her develop the engagement she uses in her career as a journalist.
But it wasn’t all glitter and tiaras.
Diaz said speaking up about issues only seemed to make matters worse, claiming she’d be accused of being ungrateful and unworthy of the coveted title.
Although she believes “it’s always been like this,” Diaz thinks matters have gotten worse as “the pageant system has changed its focus to business and strictly business.”
But that business is crumbling.
“Unfortunately, I do see pageantry dying,” she admitted.
The Miss Universe organization was bought by trans Thai business mogul Anne Jakkaphong’s JKN Global Group in 2022. In October 2023, the new owner filed for bankruptcy.
Diaz shared that former beauty queens she knows are uncomfortable with their children joining the community, and would-be contestants instead have learned to develop their own platforms — a major draw of pageants — on social media.
“They are now recognizing that pageantry isn’t the only avenue, and it’s an avenue that’s so limiting,” she said. “It’s always been like this. It’s really just becoming more public because women are finding the power to speak up for themselves.”
Although Diaz is disappointed to see that not much has changed in the decade since she was crowned, she hopes that the good of pageantry and the Miss USA organization will continue if changes — such as letting the women be authentically themselves and utilizing the knowledge of former contestants — are implemented.
“I do think this is going to be a very big moment within pageantry and a big turning point in which pageantry can decide if they want to go the right way — or the wrong way,” she said.
