Miss Hooters 2022 shakes off scary health battles — is ‘thrilled’ to take crown

nypost.com:

Madison Novo was crowned Miss Hooters International 2022 at a pageant held in Lake Tahoe on Thursday night. The annual beauty contest, which is currently in its 25th year, sees stunning Hooters servers compete for the coveted title and a cash prize.

Novo, 19, beat out 50 other employees of the racy restaurant franchise to collect a cool $30,000. The brunette beauty has worked at various Hooters locations across South Florida in the past two years and told the crowd she had aspired to be a Hooters Girl since some gave her an emotional boost when she was a tween. “When I was 12 years old in the hospital with a rare kidney failure, I was visited by Hooters Girls who lifted my spirits,” Novo declared in a press release sent to The Post. “In my upcoming role, I’m determined to help children around the world feel they aren’t alone during their battles.”The selfless server has already spearheaded charity initiatives, leading her local Hooters team in volunteering every month at the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood, Florida.

Novo has previously spoken about her own health battles as a child, revealing she spent two years as a patient at the exact same hospital. “When I was about 11 or 12 years old, I started having really bad stomach pains,” she told Fox News last year. “My mom took me to the ER and it took about two years of me going in and out of Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital to be finally diagnosed with a couple of things.