The Competitive World Of Child Beauty Pageants

The article “Toddlers in Tiaras” was written by Skip Hollandsworth, and was published by Good Housekeeping on August 2011.The author argues that child pageants can have negative effects on the young girls’ lives. Hollandsworth wrote this article in response to the popularity of the TV show “Toddlers and Tiaras”. This article “Toddler in Tiaras” can be divided into five sections. In the introduction, the author presents an example of a young girl getting ready for a pageant. Hollandsworth then introduces a pageant girl by the name Eden Woods and her mother Mickie. The author Skip Hollandsworth describes every little detail about Eden’s process of getting ready from all the thick layers of foundation they’re putting on the 6-year-old girl face,

Zinzi Williams explains the downsides of pageantry in “Do Pageant Children Behave Differently than Other Kids?” The central claim is that there are many psychological differences between children who compete in the world of pageantry and children who don’t. Williams states the minor claims that children who compete in beauty pageants put beauty ahead of schoolwork and play time. Her other minor claim is that beauty contests affect the way the children who compete view their bodies and there overall appearance. She states that statistic that if there are 20 girls competing in the pageant, that each contestant only has a 5% chance of winning, which is very slim! Williams explains that in her research she found that on WebMD, a medical website,

Title The popular show, Toddlers and Tiaras on TLC, might be amusing to watch now, but once the viewers find out the ugly truth to pageants, it will make them never want to watch again. The stress, the jealousy, and getting compared to others causes many unhealthy, life-long disorders, that all pageant parents should be aware of. For example, as these girls get judged on who's the prettiest out of their age group, they are losing confidence in themselves and building up body image issues as they don't go home with 1st place. These girls parents are paying over a thousand dollars just to get told they're not pretty enough and as the winner gets praised, they are ashamed that they weren't good enough.

Imagining if one day you saw your five year old daughter with a full face of makeup and high heels. Now she looks like a miniature adult. Not only is she a miniature adult, but now she also is very self conscious of herself and has an eating disorder at five years old. Child beauty pageants have some pros and a of lot cons to them. Also, they can affect a child’s development. One should consider that child beauty pageants can lead to a lot of mental health issues for kids at a very young age.

“Toddlers and Tiaras” was a hit television show that premiered on the channel TLC on December 12, 2008.  “Toddlers and Tiaras” ranked up a number of two million viewers per episode, which went on for seven seasons.  This show was so successful that a sequel called “Another Toddlers and Tiaras” aired on August 24, 2016.  “Toddlers and Tiaras”, not surprisingly, took a look into the lives of young pageant queens and what goes on behind the stage and all the makeup.  Many, but not all, young girls love to dress up and wear their mother’s high heels, but this trend has been taken up a notch in the last few decades with prizes and money now at stake.  Some people consider, what is being called child beauty pageants, cute, while some believe that it is disgusting and ruining children.  In this article, the different viewpoints on child beauty pageants can show as to why it can affect a child’s development positively and negatively.

Beauty pageants have been around in America for decades; however, they have not gained notoriety until the show "Toddlers and Tiaras" aired on national television. The airing of "Toddlers and Tiaras" has brought child pageants to the attention of many Americans. Not many people were aware of what took place in beauty pageants, but ever since the show debuted in 2009 there has been an intense controversy about children as young as newborns being entered into pageants. Some people say that pageants raise self-esteem and teach responsibility, whereas others say that pageants are necessary and children should take advantage of their youth. Although pageants teach etiquette and communication skills, ultimately they carry a vastly high

With the advent of the popular TLC television show Toddlers and Tiaras, child beauty pageants are more popular than ever. The first child beauty pageants were held in the mid-1960s, and have become a billion dollar industry since its conception. In recent history, the ethics of these types of competitions have been criticized and made into a controversial issue, with the murder of child beauty star Jon-Benét Ramsey in the mid-nineties, television programs and documentaries premiering in the 2000s like HBO’s Living Dolls and TLC’s Toddlers and Tiaras gaining massive popularity and helping start the conversation around the ethics of such events happening. Many feel that these competitions are sexualizing children and objectifying them. Child beauty pageants have become a huge problem in society today, and should be banned.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the negative effects of children beauty contest on its contestants. Although many people argue that there are some benefits of this contest such as build up the confidence, self-esteem, public speaking skills, tact, and poised it is also true that it can result to negative psychological effects and interferes in child development worldwide. The Toddlers and Tiaras, and Little Miss Perfect are popular reality TV shows that features young girls the real hardship and obstacles from their mother’s pressure or preparation for the pageant. They are ages from 1 to 12 years old, with main goal of winning and get the tiara and money or ribbon or teddy bears. Generally, the parents of these young girls believe and make decision that the beauty pageant is okay. Pageants, particularly those designed for younger children, focus primarily on appearance, attire, and perceived “cuteness.”

Media has shown misrepresentation of women and girls on reality TV shows. Women and girls are treated like objects and only appreciated for their beauty rather than their intelligence. According to Child Beauty Pageants Statistics, reality shows have become a large part of the American culture, “based on statistics, about 5,000 child beauty pageants are held every year and 250,000 child contestants are participating (para 3). The reality TV show named, Toddlers and Tiaras is an example of a reality show about a beauty pageant competition for children. Toddlers and Tiaras negatively impacts young participants’ lives and viewer lives physically and psychologically.

world of beauty pageant. They will compete in hopes of getting the crown, pageant titles, trophies, fame and of course money. In an article called ‘Princess by Proxy: What Child Beauty Pageants Teach Girls About Self-Worth and What We Can Do About It,’ M.Cartwright (2012) argues that

“It doesn’t matter if you can breathe. All that matters is if you look good”. Just Googling the search term “beauty pageants coming up,” will result in 2,710,000 results appearing in 1.18 seconds. Children are the fastest-growing segment of the beauty pageant market, with annual children's competitions attracting an estimated 3 million children, mostly girls, ages six months to 16 years, who compete for crowns and cash. Infants, carried onto the stage by their mothers, are commonplace. April Brilliant, reigning Mrs. Maryland and the director of Maryland-based Mystic Pageants, says pageants give little girls a chance to "play Cinderella." However, playing ‘Cinderella’ can cause children to develop insecurities or self-hatred if they don't

Young girls subjected to beauty pageants at their parents’ wishes, due to parents who force their children to compete. Martina Cartwright, Ph.D., discusses the objectification of children by their parents in her article Princess by Proxy: What Child Beauty Pageants teach Girls About Self-Worth and What We Can Do About It in which she claims parents create a proxy by using their children to gain their own feeling of achievement (“Princess by Proxy,” Cartwright). Parents live vicariously through their children at the expense of the child’s innocence. Objectification of children is not limited to children simply participating in pageants, but even the training process when they are preparing for competition. In her article Darling Divas or Damaged Daughters? The Dark Side of Child Beauty Pageants and an Administrative Solution, Lucy Wolfe describes the show Toddlers & Tiaras, shown on TLC, and the things parent make their children do for pageants. Wolfe discusses the story of a little girl named Mia as an example. At the age of three one of Mia’s costumes for a pageant

Lights flashing, cameras flickering, and judges critiquing: three common sights when one participates in a beauty pageant. Beauty pageants are very popular in America’s society as it displays many young women’s attractiveness and talents. But a new style of beauty pageant has emerged, and it is striking high numbers of viewers. These pageants are just as glamourous as before, and competitions are vicious, except there is a change to the contestants. This is known as child beauty pageants. These types of beauty pageants are very adorable on the surface, but they are known to destroy the competitors’ physical looks. Judges are not mind readers, but this has been known to lead to mental problems for the little beauty queens. Most parents are very protective towards their little princess, but it is disgusting to see that these parents allow their daughter to dress up in sleazy outfits as well as behaving inappropriately on stage. Child beauty pageants for girls between the age 2 to 18 have taken new heights that should not be shown on television and should not be a competition to participate in.

The TLC Show, “Toddlers and Tiaras,” is not an accurate representation of all that goes into preparing children for pageants. The show dramatizes the mostly the negative side of childhood beauty pageants. It depicts competitors that want to win strictly based on appearance. Despite the bad reputation that beauty pageants have, they equip young men and women with skills and opportunities such as chances to win scholarships, improving self-confidence and promoting social skills.

There is an average of 5,000 beauty pageants a year with over two million contestants who sign up to participate. “Toddlers and Tiaras” is a show on TLC that first aired in 2009 and is dedicated to the viewing of child beauty pageants. The show shadows the process of getting ready and the performance of the three young girls in the contest (Padmore, 2016). The ages of the girls range from only a couple months old to young girls of around fourteen or fifteen-years-old. The juvenile individuals were pictured wearing skimpy little outfits including bikinis and short shorts with a crop top shirt. The show had an average of 1.3 million viewers every week (Padmore, 2016). That is 1.3 million people, including men and child rapists, watching these little girls wearing little or next to nothing dance around the stage. Speaking from a personal standpoint, I have watched “Toddlers and Tiaras” and have witnessed a children’s beauty pageant in person. What I saw was something I could never forget. I watched