A former Air Force officer and Miss America contestant challenges Hollywood's stereotypes about beauty pageants.

As an active-duty Air Force officer and the first Miss America, Madison Marsh is addressing common misconceptions about the pageantry world she has come to appreciate.

Miss America 2024, Marsh, 23, stated that beauty pageants are not solely about the glamour and glitz commonly portrayed in Hollywood films and on TV screens.

"Marsh stated that her score in the Miss America competition was mostly based on her public speaking and community service. She emphasized the importance of having a community service initiative, which is her nonprofit organization, the Whitney Marsh Foundation."

The people she met in the organization were some of the most well-spoken, passionate, and intelligent individuals she had ever encountered.

Marsh stated that people often assume that all we are because of the silly movies made about pageant girls in Hollywood.

For me, what I wear on stage and my actions are not as important as what we can accomplish for our communities.

"I think a lot of times people just pull up, you know, whatever has been made in Hollywood about silly, silly movies that have been made about pageant girls and assume that's all we are." — Madison Marsh

"Despite wearing this, I am still serving in the Air Force and my nonprofit, as well as working with Pam Khan on a cause that is crucial, such as pancreatic cancer. This goes beyond the surface of a pageant."

Since her mother, Whitney, passed away from pancreatic cancer at the age of 41 in 2018, Marsh has been an active advocate for the disease.

Madison will soon share her story with Congress on Capitol Hill in hopes of securing $25 million for pancreatic cancer research programs, in addition to creating the Whitney Marsh Foundation in her honor.

Marsh stated that during meetings with members of Congress, we are advocating for an increase in the budgets for the National Institute of Health and the National Cancer Institute, specifically requesting $51.3 billion and $7.934 billion, respectively.

WATCH: MISS AMERICA ADVOCATES FOR PANCREATIC RESEARCH ON CAPITOL HILL

"I believe that, on a personal level, as someone who has attended many meetings related to pancreatic cancer in the past, I want to ensure that any increase in fundraising levels is ultimately used to allocate resources towards combating this disease."

"I want to make sure that even though we're calling for a lot of these fundraising levels to be increased, that at some point that money is actually getting allocated back to pancreatic cancer." — Madison Marsh

Pancreatic cancer, the No. 3 cancer killer in the US, is receiving significantly less funding compared to the other top five cancers, despite having a low survival rate. This is tragic.