Toddlers and Tiaras

Beautiful little children with their shiny golden hair bouncing in delicate curls, strutting their stuff on the stage, smiling those infectious smiles of theirs while wearing extravagant dresses that look mighty uncomfortable. That was my first thought of beauty pageants for kids. Beneath those cheery smiles, we tend to think "Are those little girls happy?". "Do they get to be themselves or are they constantly rehearsing for shows and pageants and not play at all?". Lucky us, TLC delves deeper into this phenomenon by documenting real mothers and their daughters who are regulars in local beauty pageants as they go through their everyday lives.

I've seen the ads for this show countless times before, and I had no interest in watching them. But when I watched a snippet of the show on YouTube, the show attracted me, not because it was interesting; but because it was a god-awful piece of crap. TLC should be sued for actually airing and 'promoting' this abomination. Little girls, as little as 3 years old compete against each other for the title of a beauty pageant. It's like their lives are depending on it. And if they lose, they may never set eyes on their Barbie dolls ever again. This show might be full of children smiling and being all cute, but there are also plenty of tears. They were shedding tears because they lost a stupid pageant show. As if the pageants would help them shape their future. Yes, they don't, actually!

It breaks my heart to see these kids struggling to make it to the top and having to deal with the pressure of winning. They're kids after all, and they shouldn't worry about such things. It's not part of their nature to deal with the stress of wanting to look perfect for a beauty contest and getting the right dress, hair and makeup. It's so unnatural to see these kids on the stage, not even looking like themselves, having to impress the judges with their talents and looks. The fake eyelashes, fake teeth (yes, despicable isn't it?) and extensions only make them look...unreal. And if they screw up in the talents section, they would cry their eyes out and it seems like their lives are messed up, even though they are just starting to appreciate the lives that they have.

There is one snippet of the show where a 5-year-old girl had to be spray-tanned to get ready for a pageant. I mean, come on! Spray tan? For a KID? Heck, they don't need to look like a carrot to be pretty. But anyway, the girl didn't really wanna get tanned but she had no other choice. When her mom was spray-tanning her, she was sobbing really hard that I felt like hugging her. The poor little thing had to suffer through that because of a useless beauty pageant that has no meaning at all. And who did she need the most when her face was all wet and teary? Her mom, but mommy was so busy spray-tanning her. Mommy dearest was also calling her a 'brat' because she refused to get tanned. Dude, she's 5! It's not healthy for anyone to get a spray tan, let alone a little girl. Mind you, I was screaming profanity at the screen when I watched that video.


The video up there, is probably one of the worst cases of 'delusion and insanity' that I've ever seen. And this applies to all the moms who are putting their kids in misery. Here we have the Sterling twins, whose mom was involved with pageants when she was young too. Getting her kids to be involved with beauty pageants at such a young age is one: but blatantly favouring one girl from the other is just pure heartless. In the video, she says Brianne has a better chance at winning pageants than her fraternal twin, Ashlynn. She just outwardly spoke that Ashlynn is a weak competitor because she's timid and skinny. And Brianne looks 'a lot like mommy' and has a more outgoing attitude and therefore she wins more than her sister. Mommy also said that Brianne is the prettiest out of all of her children and Ashlynn has a large nose. Like, what is this bullshit? Ashlynn, bless her heart, said that she hates competing against her sister because "It's hard to win.". Poor, poor Ashlynn. Poor her for having an ignorant, dense and merciless bitch as a mother. She doesn't deserve it. Brianne, I'm sorry that you would look like your mother in the future because she looks like a retarded horse with buck teeth. I'm sorry. But it's true.

All I'm saying is, these girls are living life like it's a challenge. They're still so young. They have to deal with the hardships of competing against other people, and their mothers' disappointed looks every time they lose. The mothers are sick and helpless. They're just relieving their glory years by putting their kids into this horrible mess. They're living their dreams through their daughters, although it's not their daughters' dream to be a part of any of it. Mothers should be the ones to show kindness and be caring towards their children. They should not encourage their own daughters to wear fake things and not be happy of how they look like. They should give them confidence, not bring them down. These kids have to be grown-ups before it's time to BE grown-ups. And it's sickening to watch them grow with tears in their eyes.