Beauty Pageants

I was watching the show Toddlers and Tiaras last night and it got me wondering. Is there any reason for this? Are there any positive effects of pageants for children? While I was doing my research I had a lot of trouble finding any positives effects at all. Here is what I did find:






Pageants can help prepare young girls for real life, they can give them skills that are being forgotten and may never be taught to them otherwise. These girls learn manners, etiquette and grace during the pageant. Poise and grace are things that were important to young women a hundred years ago, but have been all but forgotten now.

On the other hand, one might argue that being in pageants robs these girls of their childhood. Pageants take up a lot of time. There is not only a lot of traveling involved, but a lot of other preparation. These girls must get tans and learn how to dance or sing before they even have a chance of winning. Their talents must be refined before they are able to compete. This causes them to miss out on playing regularly and on just being a kid. Schoolwork may sometimes be neglected in order to prepare for a pageant weekend. Sometimes the pageants may fall on the same days as other events and the child will miss out on that school trip or on their friend's birthday party.

Pageants can raise a child's self confidence. A shy child may open up and feel better about themselves while onstage and getting so much positive attention. It can make children outgoing and give them the independence to do better later life.

Competing to see who is the prettiest can also take a very negative tole on a child. If they don't win and they aren't getting positive attention, their self-esteem will almost certainly be lowered. It can lead to problems later in life. When these girls are teenagers they are going to care way too much about beauty and will judge themselves and their peers solely on their looks. They will think that beauty is everything and that they should use it to get what they want. Teens who were once pageant children may end up with low self-esteem, eating disorders and depression as well as a sense of never being good enough.

It can also lead to children being extremely spoiled. Being given pretty clothes and all kinds of attention can give children a sense of entitlement. Parents may sometimes bribe their kids to do the things that they don't want to, or to get them to perform better, for example "if you win today, I'll buy you that cell phone you wanted," or "if you just practice the routine another half an hour we'll go out for ice cream". Children may begin to realize this and manipulate their parents into giving them whatever they want.


Pageants can be fun for children. If too much stock isn't put into winning, a child can slow down and enjoy what they are doing. They will be happy while performing and improving their skills. It's fun to get dressed up and look nice. They may even be able to make long lasting friendships with other girls in the pageants who know just what their life is like.


While it may be fun for these little girls to play 'dress-up' it is innapropriate for these parents to be oversexualizing their children. These little girls dress, dance and act like adults and it is damaging. It can give a girl a tarnished view of how a child is supposed to look and act. This can also attract pedophiles and cause young girls to have stalkers or to be sexually abused.

The money that is won in pageants can go towards good things. It could be put away for special occasions or saved for college later on. Pageants for older girls usually have scholarships to be won. More focus is put on a platform (a charity or an awareness program that the girl supports) and volunteer work is also an important factor.


The problem is, the younger girls in beauty pageants don't need to worry about community service or charities. Chances are the money being won is going towards paying for the pageants. Pageants are extremely expensive. The dresses can cost thousands of dollars plus traveling costs, makeup, hairpieces, dance/singing lessons and other costs. Often the child's mother doesn't work and devotes her time only to the pageants and running the child's schedule. This can cause parents to be more concerned with their child winning money and can put pressure on the girl.


Finally, pageants effect the whole family. They bring the child and the parents together by giving them something to do with each other. Each pageant can be like a family project or vacation for these children. It means they get to spend a lot of time with their mothers who are often at home with them and not at work.

Pageants can also tear families apart. If there are older sisters or brothers, it could be hard on them to have a sibling who is in pageants. It might make them feel bad about the way that they look. It can also cause them to feel like they aren't as loved by their parents because they don't receive as much attention as the child who is in the pageant. It can cause them to feel ugly or useless compared to their sibling.

In conclusion, pageants do more harm to children than they do good. They do have a few positive effects on a child and a family, but they are heavily outweighed by all of the negative effects. This is not something that I will ever involve my children in and I don't have very much respect for the parents that do.