Miss Hooters 2022 shakes off scary health battles — ‘thrilled’ to take crown

She’s got something to hoot about.

Miami server Madison Novo was crowned Miss Hooters International 2022 at a pageant held in Lake Tahoe on Thursday night.

The annual beauty contest, which is currently in its 25th year, sees stunning Hooters servers compete for the coveted title and a cash prize.

Novo, 19, beat out 50 other employees of the racy restaurant franchise to collect a cool $30,000.

The brunette beauty has worked at various Hooters locations across South Florida in the past two years and told the crowd she had aspired to be a Hooters Girl since some gave her an emotional boost when she was a tween.

“When I was 12 years old in the hospital with a rare kidney failure, I was visited by Hooters Girls who lifted my spirits,” Novo declared in a press release sent to The Post. “In my upcoming role, I’m determined to help children around the world feel they aren’t alone during their battles.”

The selfless server has already spearheaded charity initiatives, leading her local Hooters team in volunteering every month at the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood, Florida.

Novo has previously spoken about her own health battles as a child, revealing she spent two years as a patient at the exact same hospital.

“When I was about 11 or 12 years old, I started having really bad stomach pains,” she told Fox News last year. “My mom took me to the ER and it took about two years of me going in and out of Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital to be finally diagnosed with a couple of things. They found I have a blood disorder called prothrombin gene mutation.”

The beauty continued: “And then they diagnosed me with a gastritis disease. Then in between my two years, due to all the medicine that I was getting, I had unspecified kidney failure.”

Prothrombin gene mutation is “an inherited condition that increases your predisposition to develop dangerous blood clots in the veins and lungs, according to The Cleveland Clinic. Meanwhile, gastritis is inflammation, irritation or erosion of the lining of the stomach

While struggling with the health issues, Novo says hospital visits from Hooters girls managed to massively lift her spirits.

“They would drop off food and talk to the patient,” she recalled. “I remember hanging out with them for the first time and I spent a good couple of hours with them. It was nice because my mom, a single mom, was able to take a break, relax and eat some really good wings.”

She added: “They could have just dropped off the food and kept it moving. But they really took the time to sit down with me, learn what I was going through and talk to my mom. It made us feel at home.”

The Post has reached out to Novo for further information on her current health status.

However, the beauty looks happy and healthy, stunning at Thursday’s pageant as she partook in uniform and swimsuit rounds alongside her competitors.

She beat out first runner-up Averey Tressler, who works at a Hooters in Mesa, Arizona, and second runner-up Scarlett Knight of Pearland, Texas.

Novo said she is prouder than ever to be a Hooters girl — and the win is a longtime dream come true.

Last year, the beauty blasted misconceptions of women who work at the franchise, telling Fox News: “When they [critics] see a girl in shorts and a tank top, they automatically think it’s super provocative and super not what we should be doing right now. But we are so much more.”

She further declared: “I know so many girls who are studying and thinking about their futures. They have dreams of becoming lawyers and doctors. Some of them are also wives and mothers. There’s just so much more to Hooters than just the orange shorts and tank top. There’s just so much more to Hooters than just the orange shorts and tank top.”