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Miss New Hampshire 2016, Caroline Carter, walks the stage in the swimsuit portion of the Miss America preliminary competition. (Tim Hawk | For NJ.com)

One way to stand out at the Miss America pageant is to opt for a one-piece bathing suit in what is always sure to be a sea of bikinis.

Caroline Carter checked that box as she walked the Boardwalk Hall runway Thursday night in an electric blue number with a sheer black band across the middle.

But Carter, Miss New Hampshire, has another distinct identifier: a small black-and-white dot on her arm -- her continuous glucose monitor.

Carter, 18, who wears the device all day so that she and her family can keep tabs on her blood sugar, has type 1 diabetes. Her presence at the pageant harks back to two years ago, when another type 1 diabetic, Sierra Sandison, Miss Idaho, wore an insulin pump clipped to her bikini and evening gown as she walked the Miss America stage.

Having a visible glucose monitor on when she wears her red fishtail evening gown or blue bathing suit is one way Carter, who hails from Dover, N.H., starts conversations about diabetes. Her pageant platform, focused on diabetes advocacy, is dedicated to changing misguided perceptions of the disease, she says, like the notion that a diabetic is supposed to look a certain way.

The future Miss New Hampshire, who is the second youngest contestant at the pageant (her roommate, Miss Ohio, is the youngest), was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when she was 11 years old, after suffering from complications of mononucleosis.

"Since then, everyone's come up to me and said, 'Oh, you don't look like a diabetic,'" she says. "And that's terrifying because if I was to have a seizure, people would think it's anaphylactic shock or they would think that I have some sort of seizure disorder, but really, I could just be having low blood sugar."

Carter, who has been accepted to the University of New Hampshire, wants to be a teacher and hopes to earn her PhD in English education. She currently works with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, giving speeches and meeting with children.

"It's saved my life before," she says of her Dexcom glucose monitor, which sends her blood sugar readings to her phone and her parents' phones.

During the pageant, Carter -- who uses the hashtag #SweetCaroline on social media -- has kept cheese and cold cuts handy for a steady stream of protein during long days of rehearsals and events. But when Miss America is over, she'll be coming for her go-to sweet reward: fried ice cream from Margaritas, a Mexican restaurant back home in New Hampshire.

See Miss New Hampshire and the 51 other contestants compete as the 2017 Miss America pageant airs at 9 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 11 on ABC. Follow along with our live updates at nj.com/entertainment.

Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup or on Facebook.