Miss Colorado Kelley Johnson admitted Wednesday that people advised her against giving a monologue at the Miss America pageant.
"A lot of people told me not to do a monologue," Johnson told Ellen DeGeneres in an interview on the Ellen show. "I am a nurse. And that's my talent -- taking care of people and caring about other people. And so I wanted to give the nurses that don't have that voice, that voice and that recognition of just somebody going up there and just being a little bit different and unique."
Johnson went on to tell DeGeneres why she talked about an Alzheimer's patient.
"I know that that hits home for a lot of people and it's not something that's really easy for people to talk about," Johnson said. "I just thought, 'You know, I want to go up there and I want to be authentic. I want to be Kelley. And if I'm ever going to win Miss America or win Miss Colorado, I want to do it being myself.' And I'm a nurse!"
DeGeneres told Johnson she performed a great monologue.
"That's a very important job and you're doing a very important thing," DeGeneres said. "And you care about those people, which I loved."
Johnson said it was fun performing the monologue and see it trend on Facebook and Twitter.
However, while neither Johnson nor DeGeneres mentioned the comments the co-hosts of "The View" made slamming herspeech, Johnson did talk about what happened after that.
"Especially being able to bring all these nurses togetherand have everybody standing up for our profession and giving them the voice that they deserve -- they work so hard and they are life savers -- that's all the message I wanted to give," Johnson said. "It's about them, it's not about me."
Thanks to the Miss Colorado and Miss America pageants, the 22-year-old nurse was able to pay off her student loans. However, DeGeneres also got involved in helping Johnson. She gave Johnson an additional $10,000 so she can attend graduate school.
Watch the entire interview below:
