Every year, the Miss America pageant provides girls with a podium to promote a social cause they support. And all throughout 2013, Miss New York, Mallory Hytes Hagan, will get an opportunity to travel across the country to raise her voice against child sexual abuse.

In an interview with the Las Vegas Sun, the 23-year-old said that her mom, aunt, grandmother and cousins had all been victims of abuse. "I lost my mom for a couple of years to her anxiety and depression dealing with her own issues. I didn't understand it back then, but as an adult I do now.

"My father and mother ended years of sexual abuse in our family. I'm going to work on making child-abuse education mandatory in all 50 states, and I hopefully can change it for the next generation."

Hagan said that she hopes to meet Education Secretary Arne Duncan soon to push for education to combat child sex abuse, the Las Vegas Sun reported.

Hagan was crowned Miss America 2013 in a glamorous event held at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, where she had once worked as a waitress. She also took home a scholarship worth $50,000 to continue her education at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Interestingly, the pageant also included its first ever autistic contestant. Miss Montana, Alexis Wineman, was diagnosed with autism at the age of 11, and she wanted to use the platform to "show the world that autism is not a death sentence, but a life adventure," according to People.

Though she didn't get the Miss America title this year, Wineman was chosen as the favorite Miss America contestant by a large section of online voters.

Talking about how autism made childhood more challenging, Wineman told People: "Growing up it was really hard because I didn't know what was different about me.

"One minute I would be really happy and another minute I'd be screaming my head off and I wouldn't know why. The smallest things could set me off."

"I was called a 'retard' and [was told] that I wasn't worth the breath I was breathing," she said. "It was really hurtful stuff."