Reigning Miss South Carolina Bree Boyce made it to the top 13 in the Miss America Pageant before being eliminated.

Boyce, a theater major at Francis Marion University, lost over 100 pounds through exercise and eating healthy foods before competing in the Jan. 14 pageant, which aired  nationally on ABC.

Boyce was eliminated during the talent portion of the competition before perform-ing her talent, which was opera.

Before being cut, Boyce participated in both the evening and swimwear portions of the competition.

During evening wear, Boyce wore a long, white gown without embell-ishments. She donned a black bikini during the swimwear portion of the pageant.

Boyce’s personal strug-gle to lose weight inspired her pageant platform, “Eating Healthy and Fighting Obesity.”

At her heaviest, Boyce weighed over 200 pounds and wore size 18 jeans, which she uses to demonstrate her dramatic weight loss during public appearances.

Boyce, who was born and raised in Florence, S.C., recently appeared on the cover of People magazine.

Since being crowned Miss South Carolina, Boyce has also appeared on tele-vision shows such as The View, Good Morning Ame-rica, The Today Show and Inside Edition.

Following her elimin-ation, Boyce informed Miss America hosts that she is currently working on a book about her experiences.

Miss Wisconsin Laura Kaeppeler won the 2012 Miss America Pageant.