Miss Alabama Competes Sunday for the Miss America Crown
This Sunday is the big day for Miss Alabama Hayley Barber as she competes for the Miss America crown. The Pelham native and UAB senior won the top state honor earlier this year and says that actually takes some pressure off competing at the national level.
“At the end of the day, even if I don’t win, I get to go back and still be Miss Alabama,” says Barber. “[It] is the greatest job in the world to me and something I always wanted to be was Miss Alabama and represent my state.”
On Tuesday, Barber won the Quality of Life Award which is given for impact in community service and volunteering. Barber’s platform is called “Sight for Small Eyes” and promotes eye exams for children. She says it stems from the fact she never had her eyes checked until she was 16, when she wanted a driver’s license.
“So I knew other people my age and younger than me were neglecting to speak up about their vision impairments because I did,” says Barber.
The UAB senior plans to study optometry with a goal of opening her own pediatric optometry practice.
See Barber’s tap dancing in the preliminary talent competition:
Teens are having disturbing interactions with chatbots. Here’s how to lower the risks
Teen use of AI chat bots is growing, and psychologists worry it's affecting their social development and mental health. Here's what parents should know to help kids use the technology safely.
The Best Tiny Desk Concerts of 2025
Which Tiny Desk made an audio engineer question everything? Which one made a producer want to cry? Touch grass? Look back on the year in Tiny Desk, with the people who make them.
Why do so many people ring in the new year on Jan. 1?
Much of the world follows the Gregorian calendar, named after Pope Gregory XIII, who put the finishing touches on a Roman system that integrated ideas from other cultures.
A ‘very aesthetic person,’ President Trump says being a builder is his second job
President Trump was a builder before he took office, but he has continued it as a hobby in the White House.
Electric vehicles had a bumpy road in 2025 — and one pleasant surprise
A suite of pro-EV federal policies have been reversed. Well-known vehicles have been discontinued. Sales plummeted. But interest is holding steady.
Pipe bomb suspect told FBI he targeted U.S. political parties, memo says
The man accused of placing two pipe bombs in Washington on the eve of Jan. 6, 2021 told investigators someone needed to "speak up" for people who believed the 2020 election was stolen, prosecutors said Sunday.
