Not to be confused with Kate Upton.
Caitlin
Upton
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Beauty pageant titleholder
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Born
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Lauren Caitlin Upton
March 27, 1989 (age 23)
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Height
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5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
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Eye color
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Hazel
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Title(s)
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Miss South Carolina Teen USA 2007
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Major
competition(s)
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Miss Teen USA 2007
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Lauren Caitlin Upton (born March 27, 1989), also credited as Caite Upton, is an American fashion model and a beauty queen from Lexington, South Carolina. While Miss South Carolina Teen USA, Upton became an Internet meme for her nonsensical response to a pageant question.
Contents
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1 Career
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2 Infamous response
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2.1 Parodies
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3 References
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4 External links
Career
Upton became Miss South Carolina Teen USA for 2007 in the November 2006 state pageant. She went on to place fourth in the Miss Teen USA 2007 pageant. She gained international notoriety for her convoluted and nonsensical response to a question posed to her during the national pageant.[1][2]
Upton attended Lexington High School. She has modeled in numerous advertisements for such companies such as Nautica and Wrangler and has appeared in national magazines such as Seventeen, Cosmo Girl and American Cheerleader.[1]
Upton later signed a deal with Donald Trump's modeling agency in New York City.[3]
Upton has been enrolled in Appalachian State University where she was a member of Kappa Delta Sorority. She has moved to Los Angeles / North Hollywood to continue modeling.[4][dead link]
Alongside numerous other YouTube celebrities, Upton appeared in Weezer's music video "Pork and Beans," which was released on May 23, 2008 where the microphone she held became a lightsaber. In the same video, she blends "Maps" in a Blendtec blender.[5][6]
Upton was a contestant on The Amazing Race 16, where she is credited as Caite Upton. She and her teammate, ex-boyfriend Brent Horne, placed 3rd.[7]
Infamous response
As part of a question and answer portion of the 2007 Miss Teen USA pageant, Upton was asked by the questioner, Friday Night Lights actress Aimee Teegarden: "Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can't locate the U.S. on a world map. Why do you think this is?" Upton responded:[1]
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, uh, 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.[8][9]
According to YouTube, video clips of her response on the website have had over 51.3 million views.[10][11][12] It was the site's most viewed video for the month of September 2007.[13] Many YouTube users made their own parodies of the incident. The Yale Book of Quotations designated the response the second most memorable quote of 2007.[14] Upton won a World Stupidity Award for the Stupidest Statement of the Year.[15]
As a guest on NBC's The Today Show, Upton told Ann Curry and Matt Lauer that she was overwhelmed when asked the question and did not comprehend it correctly.[1] The Today Show hosts gave Upton another opportunity to answer. She responded:
Well personally, my friends and I, we know exactly where the United States is on our map. I don't know anyone else who doesn't. And if the statistics are correct, I believe that there should be more emphasis on geography in our education so people will learn how to read maps better.[16][17]
Both Curry and Lauer, along with unseen crew members, applauded her response.[18]
Parodies
Upton also attended the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards, where she performed a parody of her famous response.
She also appeared on an episode of the TLC series King of the Crown and on a 2009 Comedy Central's Tosh.0 as a "Web Redemption".
In September 2009, Upton appeared in a television advertisement for Wonderful Pistachios, as part of their "Get Crackin'" campaign.[19] In the commercial, she wears a pageant gown and a sash reading "Miss Wonderful," and says: "I personally believe that cracking shells will help Americans who don't have maps [pause] to build a better future."
