MISS AMERICA TALKS TO KATIE COURIC TODAY

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ON 'KATIE' MISS AMERICA CONTESTANT ALLYN ROSE
ON WHY SHE'S UNDERGOING A PREVENTIVE MASTECTOMY
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Katie Couric With Allyn Rose And Dad

On Todays edition of "Katie," Miss America contestant Allyn Rose opens up to Katie about her decision to undergo a preventive double mastectomy. Rose has never been diagnosed with cancer, but when she was only 16 years old, she lost her mother to the disease, and her choice has been making headlines as she prepares to represent the District of Columbia in the upcoming pageant. Joined by her father in-studio with Katie, they speak candidly about how that loss impacted their family and how it was a factor in her choice to have the surgery. Plus, Rose explains to Katie how she has dealt with the backlash that followed once her story became public.

KC: "When your dad first approached you about this were you a little like, ‘Whoa, Dad! I’m 18 years old! What the heck are you talking to me about this for?!'"

AR: "I was so taken back and I was offended, you know? I, I just lost my mom two years before and for my dad to look at me and say, 'you’re gonna be dead like your mom.' You know, I was very offended. But, I think over the years, I began to realize the wisdom in that remark when I found a letter from my mom and I was able to read through it and have a mom have to put everything she wanted to tell me in four pages and to know she was going to lose her battle and, you know, she just left me with that and the only thing tangible I have left of my mom is this journal and you know, I just never wanted to face that battle and I never wanted to put my children through that.”

KC: I think one of the things that has been interesting about drawing the attention to preventative…mastectomy…and also just raising awareness about breast cancer in general is sometimes some negative comments surface and some people have suggested, Ally, that ‘Oh, she’s trying to get the sympathy vote, she’s trying to have people feel sorry for her so that will give her a leg up in the Miss Universe pageant.’ I’m just curious about how, first of all that must feel, horrible. But secondly, what do you think of those comments?"

AR: Oh you know, somethings you have to take with a grain of salt, you know any time you put yourself out there, you put yourself in the public light, you’re open to scrutiny. This isn’t something that I put out, I didn’t issue a press release, I didn’t go looking for the press. I knew it was something I was gonna have to share with ten judges or however many judges we have with the Miss America program and if I worked to win, I’d have this incredible opportunity to share this story, but I was still working my way towards that and you know, when I, I shared my story with one of the board members at Miss D.C., she shared it with a friend and it really just became this snowball effect, people heard about it and I was just thrust into this position and so people don’t realize what it’s like to be 16 and to know that you’re going to have to live the rest of your life without your mom, you know? And, when they say those hurtful things, I don’t have a mom to call. I don’t have a mom to tell me that, ya know, I’m doing the right thing. I had to do that for myself and I had to be my own mentor. And I think it’s easy to sit behind a computer screen and to anonymously, ya know, send out some nasty, ya know hurtful things, but I think if they really sat back and thought, you know, what if she did read that? You know, what it was like for me to know for the rest of my life, I don’t have that person. And I’m doing this decision so that my children don’t have to face that, ya know? And it’s my decision, it’s my body, and I would like to share my story with the world, I hope that it inspires other women to know that there are things that they can do to prolong their life. But, you know, it, it is hurtful.”