Lauren Caitlin Upton, better known as Caitlin Upton is fashion model and beauty queen who gained notoriety from flubbing an answer in the Miss Teen USA 2007 Pageant.
She was born on March 27th, 1989, in Lexington, South Carolina.
Miss Teen USA 2007 Pageant
Caitlin Upton became famous because of a viral moment that spread online back in 2007. At this time, Caitlin Upton was Miss South Carolin Teen USA 2007 after winning the November 2006 state pageant.
She would place as third runner-up in the Miss Teen USA 2007 pageant, and this would be the competition that would make her particularly notable.
During a question and answer session, Caitlin Upton was asked by host Aimee Teegarden the following question: "Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can’t locate the U.S. on a world map. Why do you think this is?"
Caitlin Upton’s convoluted and confusing response would become a meme: “I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some, uh, people out there in our nation don’t have maps and, uh, I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and, uh, the Iraq, everywhere like such as, and, I believe that they should, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., uh, or, uh, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future. For our children.”
In truth, Upton’s response resulted from being overwhelmed, given the competition and what seemed to be her shock at her placement.
It was a panicked flub – though many assumed it was a mark against her intelligence. She was bullied about her response amidst the more good-natured joking that resulted from the incident.
It was so bad that she had even considered suicide due to mistreatment sparked by a simple mistake.
In 2007 she had a chance to reanswer the initial question on The Today Show and answered it rather eloquently, indicating the initial response was the result of justifiable nerves from the competition.
What did Caitlin Upton do after her pageant flub?
Caitlin Upton ended up salvaging the flub and using her pageant-worthy good looks to leverage a career for herself.
Following the 2007 Miss Teen USA pageant, she modeled for companies such as Nautica and Wrangler.
Upton also made magazine appearances in publications such as Seventeen, Cosmo Girl, and National Geographic. She would later sign a deal with Donald Trump’s modeling agency in October 2007.
In 2008 she appeared in Weezer’s meme-filled music video for the single “Pork and Beans,” where she blends a map in a Blendtec blender – based on the “Will It Blend?” meme.
In 2010, Upton took time from modeling to appear in The Amazing Race 16 – where she was credited as Caite Upton. She and her then-boyfriend Brent Horne finished in third place.
In 2013 she appeared in an episode of the web series Holliston. She appeared as Rachel in the eighth episode of season two, titled “Cursed.”
What is Caitlin Upton doing now?
Caitlin Upton works as a real estate agent for Keller Williams in Brentwood. For a time, she also was a former of F45 Training in Culver City. She has lived in Los Angeles since at least 2009.
In 2021 her infamous pageant moment went viral again – this time on TikTok. She sat down with the host of the 2007 pageant, Mario Lopez, and reflected on the situation with him, now 14 years removed. “‘It’s almost surreal. It’s like that wasn’t even me. It’s like an out of body experience,’ Caite told Mario.”
However, the reunion also was a chance to affirm that one moment did not rule her life: “Caite ultimately turned the viral moment into a positive. Following the pageant, she moved to Los Angeles and worked as a correspondent for Jimmy Kimmel and Daniel Tosh to name a few.”
Personal Life
For a time, Caitlin Upton was married to Charlie McNeil. The two were married in June 2016. The two had co-owned a gym called UpTone Fitness during this time. They ultimately divorced in 2019, however.
She is currently in a relationship with athlete Dan White. Caitlin Upton has two children. The first was born in 2020, named Vin.
Her second child, Beaux, was born in 2021 but had some complications – thankfully, the child is doing quite well in 2022.
Caitlin Upton can be found on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
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