Allyn Rose, Miss America Contestant, Will Undergo Preventive Double Mastectomy

Miss America hopeful opens up about her voluntary decision, win or lose, to go under the knife and have her breasts removed to ward off breast cancer

This is no ordinary Miss America contestant.

Allyn Rose, the 24-year-old Maryland native set to compete at the famed beauty pageant representing Washington, D.C., next year, is planning to undergo a precautionary double mastectomy.

In an interview with People, Rose explained that she made the hard decision to have both breasts removed at such a young age because of a genetic mutation that predisposes female members of her family to get breast cancer early in their lives.

"The idea that I could wake up one day and not have the same body that I did the day before is very scary," the blond bombshell told the magazine. "But I also realize my mom was diagnosed at 27. That's three years away from me. I'm not going to let my fear of losing this part of my femininity stop me from living."

Rose posted last week to her Tumblr page a BRCA analysis she had done which detects harmful mutations in genes that produce hereditary breast-ovarian cancer syndrome, and, luckily, the test came back negative.

However, having lost her mom to the disease when she was just 16, Rose is very cognizant that she could get breast cancer at any time. "It's a very strange change in our genetic code. Almost all of the women in my family have passed away from it," she said.

So the model and part-time paralegal said she's opting for what most people would say is an extreme preventive measure to give herself the possibility of a long life and hopes her pageant experience can help educate people about being more attuned to their health. 

Miss America is set to air live on ABC on Jan. 12. And Rose said that if she's crowned the winner, she'll wait to have the procedure followed by reconstructive surgery once her year-long reign is up in January 2014. Should she lose, she'll have the surgery next June. 

As the saying goes, beauty's on the inside.

Rose, who played volleyball in college and has been a competitive roller figure skater, wouldn't be the only notable figure to have the surgery in a battle against breast cancer. America's Got Talent judge Sharon Osbourne, actress Kathy Bates and E!'s own Giuliana Rancic all underwent double mastectomy this past year.