In the article "Beauty Pageants and its Effect on Children," the author creates a strong argument by using all three appeals concurrently. The author, Zinzi Williams, used ethos, logos, and pathos successfully in order to persuade people toward his beliefs on the issue of child beauty pageants in the United States. Although the author included excellent examples of all three appeals, his use of pathos was the most effective of them all. His use of pathos was the most effective in evoking a sense of connection between the audience and the story that he includes, which supported his argument that there needs to be a change in child beauty pageants in the United States.

Pathos was undoubtedly the appeal that created the most impact on the audience. Zinzi Williams initiated this article by alluding to the tragic story of Jon Benet Ramsey, a six year old who participated in child beauty pageants and covered the mass media and headlines nearly two decades ago. Jon Benet was kidnapped and brutally murdered after her family found a note, threatening to kill her if they didn't pay $118,000 (Williams). Williams included a statement made from Ramsey's father of him admitting that letting his daughter compete in pageants is something he regrets. "We were so naive. I now believe with all my heart that it's not a good idea to put your child on a public display. Only because- that possibly might have drawn attention to us," John Ramsey stated. William's inclusion of Jon Bennet Ramsey's story was extremely clever. The story of Ramsey is relevant to the topic, for she competed in beauty pageants at a young age. By including the victim's father's statement of regret and accusation of pageantry being a significant factor toward the murder, he is associating child pageantry as a highly negative activity to his audience. Williams continues by stating, "One question that stems from that tragedy is have parents learned anything about letting their children compete in beauty pageants benefits and what precautions should be taken when competing?" This immediately ties child pageantry with a sense of danger. This excerpt creates an immediate and distasteful first impression on the subject he is about to discuss. This use of pathos was strategically used to allow the audience to view Zinzi William' feelings and exact perception on the issue. Zinzi Williams choice of pathos appeal effectively persuades the readers to understand his side of the argument. Considering many of the readers may be parents and have children of their own, reading the story of Jon Benet Ramsey could likely cause them to think about their own children and put themselves in the shoes of Jon Ramsey's parents. These parents reading the article would immediately feel drawn away from ever involving their children in such activities and would also feel emotionally connected to the article by having to think about this scenario happening to their own children. This particular use of this pathos appeal could cause parents who don't have children involved in beauty pageants to stay uninvolved and it could cause parents who do have children involved to have second thoughts on the idea and possibly turn against them completely. The author quotes scenes that occurred in ABC's television hit series, Toddlers & Tiaras. Most Americans have viewed many episodes of this television series and have witnessed firsthand what children have to go through in order to participate in these pageants. According to Williams, the most common categories are: interviewer, swimwear, talent, and beauty. He states that all of these categories require a costume change, copious amounts of make up, spray tans, fake eyelashes, and even faux teeth (often called "flippers"). He uses imagery to compare these innocent toddlers to "real life Barbie dolls who parade in miniature ball gowns, false eye lashes, and even padded bras." Comparing children to sexualized human Barbie dolls definitely creates a terrible image in my head, as I suppose it would do the same to others reading as well. As I'm sure this was the author's attempt and that readers were intended to feel this way, it's clear that this use of imagery provided a significant inclusion to the pathos approach in his article.

While pathos is undeniably a very important appeal in this essay, ethos is an important factor in the argument as well. "Only in a country that represses the evidence of the senses could child pageantry grow into an eighty five billion dollar industry without anyone noticing. Only in a nation of promiscuous puritans could it be a good career to move to equip a six year old with bedroom eyes," states Richard Goldstein, giving his final thoughts on the subject. Richard Goldstein is an executive editor for the American journalist and writer and specializes in culture topics like this one (Williams). Zinzi Williams chose to have this quote bolded for a reason. This quote is an example of ethos, as it shows that the person this quote came from is knowledgeable and trustworthy on the subject; therefore, creating credibility. 

 In addition to effectively using the ethos and pathos approaches, Zinzi Williams also managed to provide plenty of figures and facts to add a logos appeal. Williams explicitly makes the argument that there needs to be a change in the child beauty pageant world in the United States. He claims "children need to be asked if they want to participate and they CAN think on their own and should NEVER be forced to do something they don't want to do." Although Williams executes his argument considerably well throughout the article, there are a few flaws that are included. He talks about pageants making the invalid assumption that there are absolutely no children who truly want to participate. He also adds that pageants are somewhat ridiculous and that parents "live vicariously through their kids." This could offend some pageant moms who could be reading the article and this could; therefore, harm his credibility because he has no evidence to support this highly debatable assumption. Zinzi Williams effectively used all three techniques of appeal in the article; however, there are a few flaws in his argument as well.

In conclusion, author Zinzi Williams established a great argument using all three rhetorical appeals throughout the article. He executed just enough ethos to where it did not make his argument seem exaggerated in any way. He provided just the appropriate amount of logistics and facts to inform his audience on the topic without overloading the article with them and making the audience feel overwhelmed. Most importantly, his technique and strategies used when enforcing pathos created the most impact upon his audience. Overall, Zinzi Williams did a fantastic job using all three strategies and therefore created a very effective argument as to why there needs to be a change in child pageantry in the United States.

