A Miss USA contestant has revealed scars from the “incredibly dangerous” plastic surgery she says she felt pressured to undergo for the legendary pageant.
Beauty queen Brittany Mason, who represented Indiana in the 2008 Miss USA competition, talked about her experiences in a three-part TLC documentary, Crown of Deceit: Inside the Miss Universe Scandal, now streaming on HBO Max.
The Miss USA pageant is the United States’ national qualifier for the Miss Universe pageant.
Brittany Mason (left) represented Indiana at the Miss USA pageant in 2008. Pictured here with other contestants at Koi Restaurant & Lounge in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Denise Truscello/WireImage
The pageant is co-owned by the JKN Global Group and Legacy Holding Group USA. It was previously owned by President Donald Trump, who bought it in 1996 and sold it to WME/IMG in 2015, before his first term in office. The docuseries focuses on several major scandals in the organization’s embattled history.
The now 40-year-old financial services industry worker, who described her upbringing as “rough,” said she saw the competition as “my chance for me to create a better life for myself.”
Still, people around her set expectations for how she should look on stage.
“There was a conversation that I had about my preparation for Miss USA,” she said. “I was encouraged to get liposuction. And I was 17.”
At 16, Brittany Mason won the title of Teen Indiana and then Teen Model of the USA. Pictured here in Germany, representing the USA at Teen Model of the World in 2004.
Fabian Matzerath/DDP/AFP via Getty Images
Mason told Page Six that she was size two, 5-foot-10, and 125 pounds, but she “needed to lose one inch.”
When diet and exercise did not work, she said she felt that undergoing surgery to suction out fat was her only option.
Mason recalled meeting a plastic surgeon at a Miss Universe after-party, which prompted her to start saving money.
Brittany Mason at the Miss Sunset Tan Pageant in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2009.
Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Mason spent her summer working four jobs to save enough money to undergo the procedure when she turned 18.
“Instead of moving to Los Angeles and going to college, I spent [the money] on liposuction,” she said in the documentary, stating she still has scars from the procedure.
“I could have died on the operating table,” she said. “And it was for one inch.”
Brittany Mason said she was size two when she was encouraged to lose more weight. Pictured here at a Super Bowl party in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 2012.
Gustavo Caballero/Getty Images for GQ
Mason, who placed seventh in the competition and did not go on to compete in Miss Universe, now regrets the procedure.
“I did not heal well. And it’s sad,” she said. “I wish I could hug my younger self and tell myself, ‘You don’t have to do this.’”
After competing in Miss USA, Brittany Mason took part in the modeling competition reality series “The Face” in 2013. The show was hosted by photographer Nigel Barker, and Mason’s mentor was supermodel Coco Rocha.
Oxygen Media/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
Mason clarified to Page Six that she “wasn’t explicitly told” to undergo the procedure: “It was a bigger conversation of what needed to happen for my preparation, and I needed to lose that inch, and it was recommended to me that maybe liposuction was the answer.”
Still, she said that “the environment” and her young age affected her decision-making.
Brittany Mason of Nevada (second from right) competes in the second annual Miss Sunset Tan Pageant at the Palms Casino Resort on July 26, 2009, in Las Vegas.
Ethan Miller/Getty Images
“I wanted the job of Miss USA so bad. It was my greatest dream,” she said in the documentary. “At that age, I truly believed that winning that crown would give me a better life.”
The Looker has reached out to the Miss USA pageant but did not immediately receive a response.
Brittany Mason at the Philipp Plein 2026 Summer Charity Fashion Show in Las Vegas in April.
David Becker/Getty Images for Philipp Plein
Mason is currently working on an initiative to support pageant contestants’ mental well-being and stop “predatory contracts.”
“I absolutely believe there are teenagers that are going through pressures to do things that could be permanent,” she said. “I was one of them, and they deserve better.”
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