Child Beauty Pageants
Dear Sir/ Madam,
I am writing to you about the cruel and harmful world of child beauty pageants. Little girls as young as 6 weeks are being paraded around by their pushy parents and made to look like living dolls. Is this a good environment for a young child to grow up in?
These young girls are expected and forced to act like young adults; they spend hours on end rehearsing walks and routines. They are not given the freedom to be a child, make mistakes or have imperfections. It is devastating to see so many young girls, unable to be themselves and have fun; instead they’re forced to be fake and “perfect”. No child should be showcased and painted with makeup and be told they’re not good or pretty enough to win. Instead, young children should be encouraged to try new things and be told it’s okay to make mistakes and not be judged.
Children shouldn’t be brought up being assesed purely on their superficial looks. “A child, especially a female who is going to pay so much attention to her looks and knows she is being assessed for it, is very prone to develop eating disorders, such as anorexia or bulimia” said Lucia Grosaru, clinical psychologist and president of the Romanian Institute. These are very serious disorders and they are not addressed properly by the pageant world.
Promoters are neglecting all harmful side effects, as their job is simply to bring in as much money as possible. Child beauty pageants are huge money making ventures, with no concern for their participants; only for bringing in large sums of money. What concerns me most is what some pageant mums are willing to pay just to say their child “won”; but who is the real winner? Pageant mum Tricia, mother of 15-month-old SamiJo said “it’s like a drug, you win once, and you just can’t stop”. Tricia also admitted “that’s the whole reason I wanted to have a daughter” (so she could be entered into pageants) and one day she is going to make her “Miss United States”. These dreams are obviously not little
I am writing to you about the cruel and harmful world of child beauty pageants. Little girls as young as 6 weeks are being paraded around by their pushy parents and made to look like living dolls. Is this a good environment for a young child to grow up in?
These young girls are expected and forced to act like young adults; they spend hours on end rehearsing walks and routines. They are not given the freedom to be a child, make mistakes or have imperfections. It is devastating to see so many young girls, unable to be themselves and have fun; instead they’re forced to be fake and “perfect”. No child should be showcased and painted with makeup and be told they’re not good or pretty enough to win. Instead, young children should be encouraged to try new things and be told it’s okay to make mistakes and not be judged.
Children shouldn’t be brought up being assesed purely on their superficial looks. “A child, especially a female who is going to pay so much attention to her looks and knows she is being assessed for it, is very prone to develop eating disorders, such as anorexia or bulimia” said Lucia Grosaru, clinical psychologist and president of the Romanian Institute. These are very serious disorders and they are not addressed properly by the pageant world.
Promoters are neglecting all harmful side effects, as their job is simply to bring in as much money as possible. Child beauty pageants are huge money making ventures, with no concern for their participants; only for bringing in large sums of money. What concerns me most is what some pageant mums are willing to pay just to say their child “won”; but who is the real winner? Pageant mum Tricia, mother of 15-month-old SamiJo said “it’s like a drug, you win once, and you just can’t stop”. Tricia also admitted “that’s the whole reason I wanted to have a daughter” (so she could be entered into pageants) and one day she is going to make her “Miss United States”. These dreams are obviously not little