People

By Guy D. Garcia

She is as all-American as, well, cheesecake. After she won the Miss America title in Atlantic City last week, however, Susan Akin's first wish was for hot apple pie and ice cream. Since then, Akin, 21, a blond, blue-eyed public relations and communications major at the University of Mississippi, has been swept up in the whirlwind of talk shows, photo sessions and interviews that come with her crown. "For me, Miss America is the ultimate," says Akin, who has participated in at least 100 professional beauty pageants since the age of five. She has picked up a few expert techniques along the way. She shrink- wrapped herself in Saran Wrap for three or four nights before one competition last year ("You lose a little bit of water"), and has used an athletic adhesive called Firm Grip to keep the bottom of her bathing suit in place ("Everybody uses it. I'm so firm I don't need much"). Her immediate plans? "I want to make a lot of money," she says both candidly and cheerfully, "and meet a lot of people."