A beauty queen is suing pageant officials and the Miss America organisation after being stripped of her Miss Delaware title - for being too old.

Amanda Longacre, who is 24, is seeking to be reinstated as Miss Delaware and to be allowed to compete in the Miss America pageant. She is also seeking $500,000 in damages for herself and $2.5 million for other contestants who she claims were recruited to compete in pageants before being told they were too old.

Pageant officials say contestants must be between 17 and 24, and Ms Longacre turns 25 in October - after this year's national pageant - but the rules purportedly require contestants to be no older than 24 at the end of the year.

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