Child Beauty Pageants Affect A Child's Development

The saying “Never judge a book by its cover” simply means don’t judge a person based only on appearance; however, in a beauty pageant it is hard to follow that phrase. In many of the glitz pageants, children are seen wearing heavy make up, spray tans, fake eyelashes, hair extensions, and flippers. Having contestants endure in all these beauty changes, demonstrates how natural beauty is not pretty. In Laura Agadoni article “How Do Child Beauty Pageants Affect a Child’s Development?” TV talk show host and psychologist Phil McGraw told pageant moms to explain to their children that a beauty pageant is a fantasy (Agadoni, 2003). McGraw said, “Children can easily believe after competing in pageants that they should concentrate too much on external
and superficial aspects of beauty instead of developing internal values of caring for others and a love of learning” (Agadoni, 2003). By changing children’s appearance to win a contest, parents are teaching children that in order to be successful, you have to conform to what society believes is beautiful and not how they should actually view themselves. Billy Reed, a Kentucky newspaper columnist, states “The children who participate in beauty pageants are often hurt by the experience, suffering damage to their self-esteem and later developing eating disorders, like anorexia, due to skewed values about their bodies” (Reed, 2006).