Kate Shindle didn't need a tiara or a swimsuit to captivate a youthful audience - just some straight talk about a scary disease.
Shindle is using her year as Miss America to spread the word about AIDS, focusing on the wide range of people with HIV and the increasing number of young people contracting the virus."HIV really is a hard disease to contract. And if you don't do drugs and don't have sex, you'll probably never get HIV," Shindle told about 1,000 students Monday in Virginia's Pittsylvania County. "It only takes one mistake to contract this virus, so don't do that to yourself."
Sixth-grader David Lewis said he's heard similar talks before, but he paid more attention since it was coming from Miss America.