Toddler Nightmare

By: Morgan Douglas

TLC’s “Toddlers and Tiaras” is a reality TV show about child beauty pageants. The show follows crazy moms and their contestant daughters through their pageant life. Some of the girls start competing at the young age of three. What happened to having a childhood of playing outside and hanging out with your neighbor friends? Instead these little girls are being put in little outfits, caked on with makeup, wearing hair extensions, and some even have to put in fake teeth to hide their gaps. These women are teaching their kids to be superficial at a young age while most of society is trying to make it the opposite. Little girls are being pushed to grow up faster by being exposed to a world where beauty is the only thing that matters.  The show Toddlers and Tiaras sexualize and promotes superficialism in girls at a young age.

          “The costumes, the make up, and the “primping” process teach these girls that their looks are what matters. Rather than raising strong, confident girls who want to achieve the best in life, these parents and the hosts of the competitions provide a platform on which little girls are dressed up as Barbie dolls and paraded around, trying to achieve some form of perfection that shouldn’t exist in little girls” (HubPages).  Toddlers and Tiaras has faced controversy ever since it aired in 2009.

Being judged from such a young age can do damage to these little girls self esteem. This kind of exposure to the pageant and beauty world creates unhealthy habits. The little girls are being expected to perform perfectly which can create stress on a child who shouldn’t have anything to be stressed about at such a young age. “Brooke Breedwell, a former child pageant star, told ABC’s Good Morning America that the pageants left her with stress, anxiety and the feeling that she needed to be perfect, all the time. Breedwell was also forced to go to a tanning bed three times a week for 20 minutes, during her pageant career” (HubPages). These pageants also put the idea in these girls heads that they need to be thin and have the perfect “Barbie” body. This can create eating disorders, and emotional and mental harm.

            Many people look at the moms in disgust because they cant believe they are doing this to their kids. Others believe that some of the things they are doing could be considered child abuse. These little girls are being forced by their moms to tan and wax their eyebrows. Spray tans and tanning in tanning beds is harmful to your skin and can even give you skin cancer. Why would these moms expose their daughters to something that is harmful and life threatening? One of the girls on the show was forced by her mom to get her eyebrows waxed. As her daughter screamed and trembled, the mother confided to the camera that her kid was scared because once a salon worker put on wax that was too hot, and tore off her skin. When the horrifying scene was over, the girl was shaking in pain and crying, as her mom said, "There! Doesn't that look pretty?" (Business Insider). And it doesn’t stop there; it actually gets worse. In one case the mom actually injects Botox into the little girl before pageants. Are these moms real life? Giving a child Botox is outrageous. Not only is that exposing a kid to the word of plastic surgery, but also that seems completely unsafe for someone so young.

            Not only do they perform every beauty ritual of a pop star to these girls but they also dress them in provocative clothing. Every day girls are being sexualized at a younger and younger age. It’s scary to imagine how they are growing to grow up being exposed to proactive clothes at such a young age.  Soon girls are going to try showing up to middle school in cheeky undies and crop tops. One of the girls on the show was only three years old when her mom had her go on stage dressed as Julia Roberts character from Pretty Woman, who was a prostitute. The outfit was a little tank top connected to a skirt by a silver hoop. Completed with knee high boots and blonde wig. Another girl was dressed as Dolly Parton. The costume even included fake boobs and a fake butt.

            Maybe some of this is coming from the moms shattered dreams of being Miss America but that is no excuse to put your daughters in the scary world of pageants.  These young girls are being taught that what is on the outside is what matters. Instead of having normal childhoods where you don’t care to wear makeup until your in middle or high school, they are having their faces caked with makeup by age 3. They are having things done to their bodies that most woman don’t do until they are in their 50s or not ever. This is creating harm to the girls self esteem, bodies, and thought process. They are going to grow up believing that beauty is everything. If girls are getting botox at 6, whats next?

The Georgetown Indy

Sources

Admin. , Indy . "Sexualization of Our Youth: Toddlers & Tiaras." The Georgetown Indy. Word Press, 21 Mar. 2012. Web. 1 Aug. 2014. <http://thegeorgetownindy.com/?p=535>. (picture)

Lindsey, Claire. "The Ugly Truth of Child Beauty Pageants." HubPages. HubPages Inc. , n.d. Web. 1 Aug. 2014. <http://clairelindsey.hubpages.com/hub/The-Ugly-Truth-of-Child-Beauty-Pageants>.

Week, The. "The Five Biggest Controversies To Hit 'Toddlers And Tiaras'." Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 17 Sept. 2012. Web. 1 Aug. 2014. <http://www.businessinsider.com/toddlers-and-tiaras-controversies-2012-9>.