"Twenty-four hours after my improbable dream became a reality, my pride was stripped away," Carlson says of her immediate experiences after winning Miss America in 1989. "A well-known female reporter in New York City tried to take me down during my first press conference with a demeaning and ugly line of questioning. [...] As I stood at the podium in agony, every ounce of self-confidence drained from my body. Instead of feeling celebratory about having just accomplished something pretty spectacular, I was forced to fend off an attack. That feeling would become familiar over the years, but most of my assailants would be men, their attacks physical rather than verbal."