America finally announces the winner of 'Miss America 2019'

Miss America 2019 was crowned over the weekend. Nia Franklin from New York walked away with the coveted title.

The 25-year-old said she has "New York grit" and is willing to work hard for her community. Franklin is also a classically trained opera singer.

Read more on our Twitter account, @amomama_usa. She took the tiara over from last year's winner, Cara Mund. Franklin said:

"It took a lot of perseverance to get here, and I just want to thank my beautiful family."

She competed with 50 other women for the title of Miss America 2019 and soon won the hearts of judges, including Laila Ali, Carnie Wilson, and Soledad O'Brien.

One notable change to this year's pageant was the elimination of the swimsuit segment. They were also free to express their individual styles.

Earlier this year, the 1989 Miss America, Gretchen Carlson, said in an interview:

“We will no longer judge our candidates on their outward physical appearance. That’s huge. And that means we will no longer have a swimsuit competition.”

According to the pageant's website, candidates won't solely be based on outward appearance. Instead, they want to contestants to focus on social initiatives.

Franklin graduated from the University of North Caroline School of the Arts and cites Lauryn Hill as her inspiration.

She said that schools which include music in their curriculum have a 20 percent hight graduation rate that schools than other schools.

New York has the most pageant wins, and Franklin is the 7th New Yorker to walk away with the title. She was also crowned as Miss New York in 2018.

In an Instagram post, Franklin said she is "humbled to have walked the Miss America Red Carpet last night for the last night of preliminary competition."

She added: "I love you, New York! God is so good!"

Contestants this year expressed their concerns with Miss Michigan highlighting the water crisis in her state and Miss West Virginia said President Trump "caused a lot of division" in the country.