She wakes up in her bedroom. She peers out the window and sees several of her school friends gleefully playing on the swing set. She enviously watches them, sighing as she yearns the free time to play outdoors with friends. Her mother bangs on the door and hollers that its time for her botox appliance and spray tan. She whimpers in pain as her mother hastily plucks her eyebrows in front of the mirror. Her mother finishes caking her daughter's face with mass amounts of paint and powder as she drags her by the hand out the front door and into their car. Who is she? She is one of the many thousands of children in the United States who is giving up a normal childhood to participate in beauty pageants. As many have seen on the television-hit series Toddlers & Tiaras, innocent little children are transformed into real life Barbie dolls. These girls are victims of parents and judges who are falsely teaching them that beauty is the most important thing to have in life. These parents are willing to let their child go through any physical alterations in order to win a contest, and these judges are not emphasizing factors that would benefit a child's mind, their academics, or inner beauty. The child beauty pageant industry should be regulated because they cause children to grow up too quickly, they affect their emotional well being, and they're also a waste of money for parents.

Beauty pageants were not always so corrupt. Competition winners used to be chosen primarily due to superb talent, well roundedness, and high scores on advanced level thinking questions (Roche). Unlike pageants in today's world, Roche states that America's first pageants involved young girls who all usually wore the same dress to create uniformity. This would be a great idea to bring back to modern day pageants in order to decrease the feeling of competitiveness and jealousy among participants. In addition, contestants used to follow the "natural look" and applied very minimal amounts of make-up. This look greatly contrasts from the disturbingly big hair and high heels worn on on young girls today like "Honey Boo Boo," Toddlers & Tiarra's infamous child pageant star. Pageants all started with John Ruskin, a British art critic, who had the idea to hold a springtime festival for young girls, honoring their girlish innocence (Friedman). Ruskin called his events May Queen festivals, since one of the 600 girls would be selected queen, the "likeablest and loveablest" of all the children (Friedman). The first of these festivals was held in England in 1881 and they quickly spread to North America, where they found a strong reception in the United States. The fame of the May Queen festivals set off a multitude of imitators in Hoboken, Jersey City, Newark, and Long Island (Friedman).

Little Miss America Pageant started in the 1920s in New Jersey. Originally, it was for teenagers 13 to 17 years old with over 35,000 participants, prompting modification with age requirement and division (Roche). The girls weren't forced to rehearse three times a day. There were no costume changes, no fake hair, no fake teeth, and no reason to spend a fortune on a dress. However, the industry has revolutionized and has grown from only a few pageants in the 1920s to include more than 250,000 pageants today, which brings in twenty billion dollars annually (Roche). According to Roche's statistics, about 5,000 child beauty pageants are held every year and about 250,000 child contestants are participating. The industry has continued to thrive in numbers throughout the years, despite criticism that pageants now exist as a place for the parents to live through their children. There's the belief that many pageant mothers are nostalgic and simply reliving their aspired childhood dreams through their children. 

As years passed, pageants became more intense with contestants willing to go through alarming measures in order to win the eyes of the scrutinizing judges. The judges have altered their focus in contestants. Throughout the decades, the focus has shifted from well roundedness and intelligence to provocativeness and best dressed. Judges now like to see contestants wearing fake teeth, which are also known as "flippers." When contestants at this young of an age intensify themselves, it creates an overly stressful environment severely damaging a number of factors mentally and physically. "The strange surreal world of child beauty pageants must be confusing for a toddler's brain to absorb, never mind the skimpy costumes more suited to womanly curves than children's physiques," claims Rose Mary Roche, journalist and examiner of child pageants. The harmful side effects remain ignored by pageant promoters, as their job and only worry is to bring in as much revenue from the industry as possible. This stressful environment may more than likely lead to children developing issues of all kinds and cause them to question their own self-worth. Going through such vast amounts of pressure and judgment at a painfully young age can take a toll on one's life entirely.  "These pageants are no different than a car show, as these young girls are put on a pedestal and showcased on display" (Giardino).

The provocative costumes are sexualizing young girls and teaching them an immoral way of presenting themselves to society as a whole. Pro-am modeling is just one of the many aspects of how beauty pageants sexualize young girls and has become extremely common in these beauty pageants. This type of modeling is like dancing that includes acrobatics as well as extra showing off (Giardino). These inappropriate costumes and forms of showing off their bodies are terrifying when tied with girls as young as five and six years old. Girls this age should not be wearing costumes and atrocious amounts of make up to where they could be mistaken for Barbie dolls. In 2006, Fox Searchlight Picutres released a movie, Little Miss Sunshine, one of the very few movies that revolve around child beauty pageants. This movie is about a little girl, Olive, who's family is willing to do anything to make it to the pageant she is competing in. Once they arrive at the pageant, the family realizes the industry does not suit their daughter; however, that didn't stop her from competing. In the talent portion, Olive got on stage and performed a striptease style dance. The media is taking this industry and turning it into a form of entertainment when, in fact, there is nothing humorous about the issue. The reality of child beauty pageants needs to be unmasked for the sake of thousands of children's health and well-being.

Balancing all the expectations of being a pageant star must be a rigorous task for a toddler who has yet to learn how to read. The pageant industry morphs innocent children into young looking adults with nearly every physical feature being unnatural. It is possible that the child pageant participants have the chance of becoming "so mentally engaged with the contests that they no longer wish to take part in any other activities" (Bletchly). While most children are balancing playtime and an education, pageant kids are constantly having to worry about living up to their parent's and the judge's expectations. Children wear provocative outfits, unnecessary amounts of makeup, and fake eyelashes. They also receive facial threading, eyebrow plucking, and spray tans, wear wigs and nail extensions, use teeth whiteners, and the more extreme parents even subject their little girls to botox. After the transformation, children can hardly be recognized. Dr. Martina Cartwright describes a scene from Toddlers & Tiaras as they display toddlers prancing around in revealing two-piece costumes complemented by thigh high stockings and teased hair. Before hitting the stage, the choreographer demanded that they "paint on abs." Armed with spray bronzer, the moms dutifully "carved" abs into their daughter's bare tummies just before the young girls performed a dance that resulted in shocked gasps from the audience (Cartwright). "Children are meant to play with dolls, not be dolls," claims psychologist Martina Cartwright. It is wrong to teach young girls that it is socially acceptable to look like such, for it sexualizes their appearance and causes them to grow up too quickly. All of the makeup, revealing outfits, and showing off inspires and teaches children to have a poor self-image which could lead to predators who might take advantage of them.

Most stage mothers claim that their child wanted to enter the pageant on their own. Does a four year old really know what is best for her? The children have no choice in what they do. Often times mothers are living their fantasies through the lives of their own children. On Toddlers & Tiaras, viewers witnessed several young girls who seemed to strongly dislike everything about pageantry, while their mothers were overly enthused and intense with competitions. It is obvious that child beauty pageants risk the potential exploitation of children who don't have the choice to express their own opinions on the matter. To keep contestants perky, some parents have been observed giving their daughters "pageant crack" (a liquid mix of sugar, energy drinks, and high end sweeteners), prior to performing on the show (Cartwright). Cartwright explains how "often times parents will express their overall disappointment if the child commits an error or mistake through emotional outbursts, exaggerated body language and dramatic yelling, all aimed at their children." Many parents are overlooking the issues and long term effects that could come along with what these seemingly harmless beauty pageants.

The entire idea of judging based off physical appearances is wrong. We are taught from a young age to never judge a book by its cover, so why judge and harshly critic a human being, especially a child who would understand nothing besides the fact that they weren't good enough? A 2007 study by the American Psychological Association asserted that pageants teach young girls "to see themselves as objects to be looked at and evaluated for their appearance." Being a little Barbie doll says your body and your overall image has to look a certain way. This can unleash a whole complex of issues regarding children's emotional well being. These destructive experiences can lead to eating disorders, anxiety, self esteem issues, and depression. Competition is an everyday obstacle of an adult's life. But for a five year old, for instance, stress about body ideals should never even exist. According to the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment and Adoption Reform Act, child abuse is defined as "the physical or mental injury, sexual abuse or exploitation of a child under circumstances which indicate the child's health or welfare is harmed or threatened." The beauty pageant industry falls under this schema, for it spotlights and judges physical appearance, with no remorse, more than any other aspect. Consequentially the business implicitly instills the idea that physical beauty is the only key to success. Children frequently experience tears and tantrums as they are faced with enormous pressure to achieve the standards placed upon them by judges and their own mothers. Some contestants walk into pageants not knowing what to expect because they are not adequately prepared, often times causing severe anxiety. Since there is only one winner, that leaves many children sad, confused, and in the losing category. To children, this promotes the notion that when they lose, not only are they not beautiful enough, but they are also incapable of winning even if they try. Child pageants should be focusing on a person's natural inner beauty, which will give these girls the power and confidence to excel later in life. Participating in these pageants allows kids to quickly absorb the false idea that looks are more significant than any accomplishment or talent they may have. 

What happens when a toddler feels like her appearance isn't good enough? Because they've accommodated to the concept that value and self worth is directly related to attractiveness, they will feel like they have nothing else to offer, thus, leading to impairment of their developing self esteem. Many of the little girls leave the stage with nothing but tears streaming down their faces. "Is filling their young eyes with tears of rejection really the "right thing" to do for these children?" (Blue). Some of them even get yelled at by their parents for not doing a good enough job. This is when frustrations creep in, resulting in a variety of psychological complications. The American Journal of Psychology recently reported that half of all six year olds think they are fat, and that by nine years old, half of them have been on a diet. This finding implicates how detrimental the pageant world is to children because of such strong emphasis on physical beauty. If children choose to continue with the beauty pageant life as they grow older, studies show that they are more likely to maintain a lower than average BMI compared to other women. The average BMI of Miss America winners has decreased from around 22 in the 1920s to 16.9 in the 2000s. The World Health Organization classifies a normal BMI as falling between 18.5 and 24.9 (Martin, 2010). Pageant girls become so accustomed to the immense pressure to be skinny at such an early age; resultantly, they develop eating disorders, only one of the many disorders that can carry on as they become an adult. A study conducted by the University of Minnesota evaluated the association between childhood beauty pageants and adult disordered eating, body dissatisfaction, depression, and self-esteem. Eleven women who participated in childhood beauty pageants were matched by age and BMI with eleven non-participating women. The results showed that the children pageant participants scored higher on body dissatisfaction, interpersonal distrust, and impulse deregulation than the non-participants. These findings suggest that child beauty pageant participation strongly influences the health and stability of a young child. Some may argue that the judgment children experience during pageants is beneficial because it is preparing kids to accept future criticism and rejection in the real world. This argument is faulty reasoning, for the continuous judgments of their appearance may deteriorate their confidence so much that there could not even be a future for the child.

Pageants not only affect the children, but they are also a waste of money for the parents. Parents go to extremes for their children to participate in beauty pageants and many are willing to pay any price in order for their child to win the grand prize. Cartwright began a study focusing specifically on the $5 billion glitz pageant industry soon after the murder of 5-year-old beauty pageant queen Jon-Benet Ramsey. When the Ramsey family has been interviewed, the father explains his regret of putting Jon-Benet in pageants in the first place, for he believes it brought the wrong attention to her daughter. During Cartwright's study, she found that in today's glitz pageants, young contestants wear heavy make up and costumes with price tags sometimes topping $1,500 (Blue). This does not include the entry fees, photos, and other common pageants expenses such as wigs, fake tans, and flippers. The average total cost of participating in a single glitz competition ranges from a whopping $3,000 to $5,000 (Cartwright). The cost includes the required training program, accommodations, along with professional hair and make-up services. Vast payments are wasted everyday when this money could be used to benefit the child, such as saving up for their college tuition. Parents should not be spending ridiculous amounts of money on inappropriate costumes and dancing coaches when they could be putting their wealth forward to prepare for their child's education. These reversed priorities are a complete betrayal of the trust the child has in her parents to care for her in the best manner and provide a secure future for her.

Beauty pageants are one of the fastest growing industries in the United States. The government should undoubtedly regulate such an extensive enterprise to provide safety, especially because it's tied to hundreds of thousands of children in our country. There needs to be guidelines set for the hours of work on stage, practice, and travel. The key is to provide pageants girls with a balance that involves more than just fancy costumes and full make-up. Make-up and hair should be limited, so that they do not enforce sexuality at a young age. All the participants should receive a participation award, which would therefore lessen the chance of disappointment among contestants. Pageants should consider setting the minimum age requirement of the contestant at 12 years old. According to J. Geoff Malta, adolescent therapist, "this is the final stage of development, when a girl is physically an adult." She would also be able to cope better with losing. With the many recent revelations of pageant's effects on children across the globe, France has made the movement to ban beauty pageants for children under 16. The Senate adopted the bill by 196 votes to 146 (Lalisse-Jesperson). The amendment was prompted by a parliamentary report entitled "Against Hyper-Sexualization: A New Fight For Equality," which, in addition to calling for an end to the pageants, encouraged a ban on adult-style clothing for children, including padded bras and high-heeled shoes. My hope is that our nation will follow in the footsteps of France, but not necessarily by banning pageants altogether. The banning of child beauty pageants altogether would create a sudden up rise in chaos amongst parents involved; however, applying new rules and regulations would certainly help these young participants' overall well being. Children's youth, money, and health will be saved once regulations are placed in the beauty pageant industry. Unless pageants partake in regulations for their contests, thousands of young girls will risk their youth, money, and health before ever achieving a safe environment in the industry.

