Child Pageants, why would you do this to your child?

Would you ever allow your child to compete in a child pageant? I sure as hell never would!  Why is there a need to take your young daughter and cake her face with make up, cover her in a spray tan, put in fake 'perfect straight white' teeth, but so much hair spray in their hair that the hole in the O-zone layer is going to triple in size in the next 2 years, and put her in skimpy or overly excessive outfits for a trophy? 

Why would you put your young daughter through that? you may think it is all cute to see your daughter all dressed up and pretty, but this goes beyond that. This is teaching your preschool aged+ daughters that it is ok to wear that much make-up, it necessary to look fake or plastic to get the best vote, and that you will only win if you look way to old for your age. 

You can not tell me that the little girl in this picture looks right. She looks airbrushed, and that is because she is. She has a spray tan and way too much make up. 

I am a firm believer that child pageants are a form of child abuse. I have seen on tv, Toddlers and Tiaras, so many of these girls crying and refusing to go on stage, yet their parents yell at them, force them into their outfits, pull their hair to style it, then force their child onto the stage to smile and pretend they are happy. 

"Toddlers & Tiaras debuted as a series three years ago after airing its pilot in 2008, and it is the kind of freak show we’ve come to expect from TLC, which excels at finding and exploiting subgroups for its unscripted series (My Strange Addiction, Extreme Couponing, Hoarding: Buried Alive), and in the process has become the odd and desperate child among its sibling networks, which include the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet. The series is a horrifying parade of freakishly madeup, sometimes bratty children being paraded around in hypersexualized outfits by their controlling mothers, who do things like feed their kids Red Bull and spray tan them until even Snooki would cringe. It’s now in its fifth season." ~ Andy Dehnart Jan 25, 2012 

I cringe every time I watch this show. I feel sorry for these children and want to pull them off the stage and wash their faces. 

Poor little JonBenet Patricia Ramsey was a child pageant star and was murdered over it. There was so much pressure being put on her by her mother, who was the one that ended up killing her. Her parents ended up trying to cover up her murder and blaming it on someone else. 

Having a child dress likes this draws attention to them from child molesters and pedophiles. It puts a target on the child's back that screams "I like to look older and show too much skin, come and get me."  Do these mothers not see what they are doing? They took a happy child who wanted to have fun, and then killed all the fun for them by taking things way to seriously. 

Yes, there are girls out there that enjoy this, but the mothers need to learn how to let their child be a child. Why can't a pageant be about how the kid looks in their natural element? No make up, no fake teeth, no spray tan, no hair extensions, no over the top outfits, just a child. 

This is how the little girls should looks in the pageants. A natural looking little girl who is adorable with out having to try.

This is what happens when Mommy is looking for a life sized barbie doll. Her little girl no longer looks like a little girl, she looks fake and unnatural.