Hilary Lev­ey Fried­man is a soci­ol­o­gist at Brown Uni­ver­si­ty, where she has taught a pop­u­lar course titled Beau­ty Pageants in Amer­i­can Soci­ety. She is a lead­ing researcher in pageantry, merg­ing her moth­er’s past expe­ri­ences as Miss Amer­i­ca 1970 with her inter­ests as a glitz- and-glam­our-lov­ing some­time pageant judge, and a men­tor to Miss Amer­i­ca 2018. Fried­man also serves as the pres­i­dent of the Rhode Island chap­ter of the Nation­al Orga­ni­za­tion for Women. Her first book, Play­ing to Win, focused on chil­dren’s com­pet­i­tive after­school activities.