french script

For more than a century already, adult beauty pageants have existed and been used as
entertainment, drawing in an extremely large audience. But what happens when you put young
children in these types of pageants? In this presentation we will be exploring the positives and
the negatives of child beauty pageants.

What we have on the agenda are:
1. What are they?
2. Beauty procedures
3. Reasons for competing
4. Prices
5. Laws
6. Issue arising
7. Advantages
8. Disadvantages
9. Critical stance

Beauty pageants are contests where individuals are judged based on factors including beauty,
costumes, talent, and modeling. To achieve their desired look, children often undergo various
beauty procedures and sport a wide array of clothing, from extremely expensive glitzy dresses
to swimwear, depending on the category. Each year, approximately 5,000 beauty pageants are
held worldwide, with approximately 250,000 total contestants participating.

Some of the most common beauty procedures that children undergo are fake eyelashes, hair
extensions, spray tan, makeup, and flippers (fake teeth for children missing their front teeth).
Some pageant mothers can go beyond these though.

There are various reasons for children wanting to compete, or parents wanting to put their child
in a beauty pageant. It could be for the prizes given, it could be to develop skills and confidence,
it could be to boost self esteem, or it could just be for fun.

These are the prices of putting a child in a beauty pageant, according Juana Myers, the mother
of a Toddlers and Tiaras star.

Entry fees can range from around $0 to $400, depending on how big the pageant is.

Glitz dresses can be extremely expensive, costing hundreds or even thousands of dollars. She
says that the ones that she buys for her daughter are often around the $4000 range.

Children often train for beauty pageants as well. There are boot camps for beauty pageants.
She says that the ones she signed her daughter up for are $50 per one hour session.

Despite ongoing controversies surrounding child beauty pageants, they have not yet been
banned in Canada or the U.S. This is because pageants are technically not considered working,

so are not part of the federal child labour laws. But in 2013, France became the first country to
completely ban child beauty pageants. In 2014, Russia was next, passing a legislation banning
beauty pageants under the premise that “Child beauty pageants could cause harm to the health
and/or physical, intellectual, spiritual and moral development of those under 16.”

And this brings us to the issue arising/ controversial question. Do child beauty pageants cause
more harm to the society than good?

Here’s a very quick video to show what a pageant performance looks like.

There are various positive aspects that come out of children competing in beauty pageants.

Let’s start with some of the skills that children competing in pageants may develop over time.
Putting a child through healthy competition can train children to accept loss, and help them
become adapted to having a more open attitude in competition. Good morals can be developed,
such as how winning isn’t always everything. As well, experience gained from participating in
beauty pageants can foster goals and ambitions, increase spirit, and help them work harder to
achieve what they want in life. This is because beauty pageants often require a lot of effort and
hard work, which helps develop a good work ethic in children, training them to always work
hard. As well, contestants have to be very confident when they are modeling on the stage.
Being in a beauty pageant can train children to overcome stage fright and be more confident on
stage; the more pageants they participate in, the more they develop their skills on stage.
Competitors often take intensive training sessions that help them prepare for their performances
by improving their confidence and poise. As well, competitors are often required to give a
speech on stage, which helps improve their public speaking and oral communication skills.

This is a quote from a former child beauty pageant star, Robbie Meshell. She explains how her
life was turned upside down after her mother’s suicide, but she used beauty pageants to “bring
her out of that shell,” meaning that they helped her become more comfortable and confident,
and able to put herself out there. She told her story and brought awareness to suicide. Beauty
pageants can be a platform for children to share their stories, make an impact, bring awareness
to important issues, and allow other children or competitors to learn more about these
stories/issues.

Studies have shown that child beauty pageant competitors are often bullied prior to competing,
or have very low self esteem. There have been many child beauty pageant competitors who
were previously bullied, but used beauty pageants to increase their self esteem/confidence,
allowing them to move past the bullying. These are true stories. A young teen, who had
attempted suicide five times, underwent a sex change operation. She talks about two things that
have been an immense help in her recovery: her mother, who has supported her during all her
hormone treatments, and beauty pageants, that helped increase her self esteem, assurance,
and confidence. A young student was constantly bullied at school because of her acne, which
made school tormenting for her. The teen then underwent a treatment from her doctor, and

started competing in beauty pageants, which she has admitted boosted her confidence. She
went on and won a local beauty pageant. “​ I always think if you can stand on stage in front of
hundreds of people, then I can stand up to the bullies being horrible to me,”​ she says after she
won the pageant title of America’s Perfect Teen.

This is a quote from a former child beauty pageant star, Heidi Gerkin. She explains how
competing in beauty pageants gave her a “tough skin,” meaning that they gave her the ability to
withstand insults or mocking, and take criticism well.

The benefits children receive from beauty pageants are not only psychological. Children often
receive extremely generous prizes for winning a pageant title. At the age of six, child beauty
pageant competitor Isabella Barrett became a millionaire from winning so many pageant titles
and from starring in Toddlers & Tiaras. As well, winners are often given expensive academic
scholarships, funding a child’s education for parents who may not have the money to enroll their
child into an advanced school. However, cash is not the only prize that beauty pageant winners
receive. Winning a pageant title could potentially give children a head start in life, with possible
opportunities in the acting or modeling industry. For example, Isabella Barrett, using her
earnings/ pageant career, became a fashion designer and has started two companies. This
made her one of the youngest self-made millionaires in the world.

Beauty pageants are the cause for many empowering stories of overcoming challenges or
achieving success. But on the contrary, there is also a darker side to it. Here are some of the
negative effects of beauty pageants.

The judging for beauty pageants can vary for different types of pageants, but most are heavily
accentuated on only one factor: attractiveness. Being taught to value beauty above everything
else in a beauty pageant could potentially teach children the wrong morals and be the cause of
the development of negative mindsets or habits. Being put in an environment like beauty
pageants could cause children to start believing negative concepts like what’s on the outside is
worth more than what’s on the inside, a person’s worth is based on their attractiveness, etc.
Negative mindsets developed from a beauty pageant could stick to a child through adulthood.

Children in beauty pageants are given a lot of attention: compliments from parents, attention
from coaches during training, attention from an audience/judges, etc. This much attention so
early on in a child’s life could be a cause of over-confidence or narcissism. Narcissism is often
the result of how a child is raised or parented. A study conducted by U.S researchers followed
565 different children for a year and a half, looking at parenting (how much attention or praise
they were given by parents) as well as how entitled the children were. It concluded that children
who are given a lot of attention or are overvalued by their parents are often more narcissistic or
entitled than other children.

Child beauty pageants often promote or set unhealthy standards for children. Many child beauty
pageant competitors, especially girls, have a strong desire to be thin or believe that “thinner is

better.” ​A study followed 22 women. 11 women who had participated in child beauty pageants 
were matched by age and BMI with another 11 women who had not participated in child 
beauty pageants. The study showed that the child beauty pageant participants had scored 
higher on body dissatisfaction than the women who hadn’t, despite the fact that they were 
matched by age and BMI. This shows that participating in beauty pageants as a child may 
have an influence on your adult life as well. A​ s well, a study of 131 child beauty pageant
competitors has revealed that:

48% of them have reported a strong desire to be thinner.

57% of them have started a diet to lose weight.

26% of them actually have an eating disorder. And here’s another interesting statistic: The
average BMI of a child beauty competitor in the 1960s (around the time that child beauty
pageants first started) was 20.8. The average BMI of a child beauty pageant competitor in
today’s time is 16.9. This is a drastic difference. S​ tudies show that eating disorders are 
becoming more and more common, with girls as young as eight years old are being affected by 
eating disorders, with many young children saying that they need to go on a diet, and some 
parents making their children go on a diet. 
 
This is a quote from Martina Cartwright, a registered dietician and nutritional sciences professor
who had studied child beauty pageants. After attending two live tapings of Toddlers and Tiaras,
she explains how pressuring pageants can be, and how parents blame their children for failure
and push them very hard.

Studies have shown that 6% of child beauty pageants competitors have suffered from, or are
suffering, from depression. Brooke Breedwell is a former child beauty pageant star that was
profiled in the documentary Painted Babies. But after she stopped competing, she came out and
talked about what a negative effect child beauty pageants have had on her. She says, “Since I
was three I was pressured by my mum to be perfect. But living up to her expectations was
impossible. No child should ever be forced into a tanning bed when they’re just four or cry their
eyes out because they’re forced to wear make-up. At five all I wanted to do was play outside
with my friends and dig for worms in the dirt, but my mum would pull me away from my friends
and transform me from a tomboy into a beauty queen because she insisted I needed to practice
every day. There is the fact that my mum did push me, but no matter what, if you look back on
pageants, that just is not a normal lifestyle for a kid. I did miss out on a lot of my childhood
experiences.” Even after she stopped competing in pageants, she admits that there is still a lot
of tension between her and her mother. She says that child beauty pageants have left her with
anxiety, insecurity, and she feels a lot of pressure to be perfect. She says that if she ever has
children, she wouldn’t let them compete in beauty pageants.

Participation in beauty pageants is not always the child’s choice. Often it is their parents who
decide that their children should start competing in beauty pageants. Some of the procedures

that they have to undergo can be very painful or unwanted. And sometimes, parents can go a
bit too far to make sure their child looks beautiful.

For example, pageant mother Kerry Campbell injects her eight year old daughter Britney
Campbell with Botox to prevent wrinkles.

Britney admits that the procedure is very painful, but says that she is used to it. As well, she has
also waxed Britney’s thighs. Britney says that it is very painful and she doesn’t like to do it, but
does it anyway because she believes that “leg hair is not lady-like.”

Pageant mothers also have various tactics to keep their children energetic, some of which that
are harmful to a child’s health. Temper tantrums are very common, and often mothers deny their
children naps or breaks when asked, due to fear that they may affect their child’s appearance.
On the left of the screen are pixie sticks, which are a type of candy that’s basically pure sugar. It
is often referred to as pageant crack because mothers use it to keep their child’s energy levels
high. On the right of the screen is what most people refer to as go go juice. It is a mixture of
various different energy drinks, including Monster, Red bull, Mountain dew, etc. It is also used to
keep a child’s energy levels high. This can be very damaging to a child’s health, as toddlers
often require a fixed schedule of meals and naps. Pageant mothers are doing the opposite of
this by feeding their children pure sugar just to keep them awake.

Dance routines for beauty pageants are sometimes very sexualised and and accentuated on
hip/bottom movements. And not only can the routines and dances be inappropriate for children,
so can the costumes.

On the left of the screen is three year old Paisley, a pageant competitor. In an episode of
Toddlers and Tiaras, her mother dressed her up as a prostitute character from the movie Pretty
Woman. When her mother was interviewed about the questionable costume choice, she
defended her actions, saying that it was for comical reasons and that she thought it was
hilarious. On the right of the screen is another pageant competitor, four year old Maddy Verst. In
an episode of Toddlers and Tiaras, her mother dressed her up in a Dolly Parton costume,
complete with padding for fake breasts and a fake posterior.

Overall, I am against child beauty pageantry. I kind of see it as objectification or exploitation of
children. I don’t think it’s right how individuals are pitted against each other based on
attractiveness. I think society is already focused enough on attractiveness as is. While some
people may perceive beauty as a blessing, others may perceive it as a necessity. As validation
that they are good enough. Child beauty pageants, if anything, just fuel these types of negative
mindsets. When a child is raised in an environment that values beauty above everything, their
brain could become wired to focusing more on attractiveness. I think that nowadays beauty
pageants are going too far, but I don’t think that they should be completely banned. While they
may be harmful to some children, they may be helpful to others. However, in my opinion there
should be a lot more limitations set, and there needs to be a lot more changes to the system. As

well, I believe that children should be given more of a choice about whether or not they want to
participate in pageants, and parents should be more mindful about what kind of environment
they are placing their child in. The needs of a child should be put above everything else.