[UPDATE]Iowa Queen Loses Title; Fights For Girls To Have A Voice

There has been a lot of talk lately about the Mills County Fair Queen who had her title taken from her over a photo.

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This was the third year Maggie Begbie has competed for the title. After two first-runner-up titles and a Miss Congeniality title, she finally took home the Fair Queen title.

But that all ended with the fair when she was called into an emergency meeting with the fair board.

They said a community member anonymously submitted this photo from my Facebook account. And they said I do not represent Mills County in the right way. So, they decided to take my title and wouldn’t let me talk or explain my side of the story or anything behind that photo.

The photo is a bridesmaid photo where Begbie is holding up an empty mini bottle. She says all the girls in the photo except her were drinking and that the bride had her hold the empty bottle so she wouldn’t be left out.

When Begbie wasn’t given the chance to tell her story, she turned to a lawyer to see if there was anything she could do.

There are no scholarships set up for women that hold the Mills County Fair Queen title. Having her title stripped after the fair concluded disqualified her from competing for the Iowa State Fair Queen title, and for chances to win scholarships.

We did it to just see- to give it a chance. There's nothing in the state fair rules about social media. I mean, we can assume like oh yeah, your social media should be involved in it, but it's not written down. So that's a big gray area and everybody can have their own opinion about their own rules for pageants or fair queens or any of that.

The only thing they found relating to alcohol in the rules is having an alcohol charge against you.

That’s why Begbie is speaking up. To bring light to a grey area.

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If they're going to judge girls like this and assume things then I don't think girls should run I don't want girls to go through what I went through. It's not an easy deal.

Begbie’s whole view on pageants has been changed from this incident. She has thought about competing in the Miss Agriculture USA pageant but she adds that she doesn’t want herself or anyone else to go through what she has.

Maggie tells her side of the story in an interview on  AM 950 KOEL: