Child Pageants: Childhood on a Stage

I watched Toddlers & Tiaras when I was 13 or 14, and it did exactly what it set out to. I sat with my mom and watched wide-eyed at the families I didn’t yet know were being exploited, both judgmental and thankful I didn’t have to go through what I saw on the screen. I’m now (much) older, and I can clock TLC’s formula for what it is: finding people with fringe beliefs or practices, spicing their lives up with editing and scripted drama, and setting it forth for the “normies” to laugh at. With that in mind, I knew that T&T couldn’t have been an accurate representation of child pageantry. But the idea of beauty pageants for kids as young as under 1 year old still sat uncomfortably for me, so I set to work.

Surprising no one but perhaps me, it’s far more complicated than I’d initially anticipated.

The picture painted by T&T is a dramatic one: parents wake their children at 5am to practice and apply hair and makeup, the kids wear uncomfortable and painful clothes and shoes for hours per day and aren’t allowed to nap. Parents make up for this by plying the kids with sugar (usually in the form of Pixie Stix referred to as “Pageant Crack”) and occasionally demeaning them into submission. Kids throw fits whether they win or lose. It’s an ugly scene.

What I found was that this image does exist in the world. The Eden Woods and Honey Boo Boos are real, and they/their parents do behave in the ways depicted in T&T-type shows. But the majority of people are just trying to find some fun for their kids. I read countless testimonies from people who had genuinely good memories of pageantry, especially from those who felt they had agency over whether they participated and to what degree.

That said, pageant companies deserve a fair amount of scrutiny—especially when they specialize in glitz pageants. Glitz pageants are what most people are familiar with: the larger than life costumes, the full makeup and false eyelashes, the fake teeth, the spray tans, etc. They’re the ones that encourage kids of all ages to try to look as adult as possible. Natural pageants, on the other hand, have outright banned the use of makeup up to certain ages and allow only age-appropriate hair and makeup for older groups. They require fewer (and less flashy) outfits, don’t usually include a talent portion, and often focus more on interview portions. Of the two, it’s immensely obvious which are more harmful to children’s psyches.

But there aren’t any laws regulating pageants of any kind, and pageantry isn’t counted as child labor. Kids participating in any pageant are largely at the mercy of the rules and regulations set by pageant companies (and any potential statewide regulation, though this is usually sparing if it exists at all). If parents aren’t aware of (or ignore) the possible exploitation involved, the kids have no advocates. Combine that with the fact that kids who win state competitions are on the hook to compete in both national and international events, and you’ve got a recipe for a high-stress, high-frustration situation for any kid of any age.

As I said, it’s complicated. We get into the functional issues here, but next time we’ll dig into pageantry’s implications with child development and the varying motivations for enrolling kids in pageants in the first place. And hey—maybe there’s a way to make pageantry ethical and safe for everyone involved. Guess we’'ll have to find out.