Toddlers and Tiaras

How old would you guess this girl to be? I can guarantee your guess wasn’t six years old. This is child pageant star Eden Wood. She has stared on several episodes of Toddlers and Tiaras. If you’ve never seen this show, I honestly wouldn’t recommend it, especially if you have a daughter. The show is about pageants, but not just your normal “isn’t my kid cute” type of pageant. This is extreme pageantry. Most of the moms on the show participated in pageants themselves when they were younger. These moms are fierce and in control; and they’re in it to win it. Most of their time is committed to buying their little showgirls supplies for their next pageant. Eden’s mother Mikie Wood had invested roughly $70,000.00 in her daughter’s pageants and publicity. She says that if Eden’s career takes off and she’s not stuck in some small town then it’ll all be worth it. For Mikie’s sake, I hope so! If you’re really serious about winning these extreme pageants, you’re daughter needs to be the best! There are many awards a girl can win in a pageant apart from first place: she can win prettiest smile, prettiest hair, best talent and the list goes on. However, for a girl to win these titles, she has to have the right supplies! Most girls have many extensions or wigs. Many girls get spray tanned regularly (even at home!). Most girls also invest in a good solid pair of flippers (fake teeth. These aren’t just a pair of dentures like your grandfather has, these are sparkling white, perfectly straight and molded to the child’s mouth.). Sometimes the pageant girls even get padded bras to give off the image of having breasts! Some of the girl’s headshots (such as Eden’s above) make the girls look like dolls. Sometimes they don’t even look real! And when they do look real, you certainly don’t think that she’s a six-year-old child! She looks much older than six. Pageants have been long debated over whether or not they are morally right for women. With pageants like Miss America or Miss Universe, the idea is that it’s not really a beauty pageant (there’s talent and the question and answer portion too!) However, Toddlers and Tiaras show pageants of girl’s so tiny that their parents actually carry them on and off stage. Even at age six, I don’t think the winners are picked because of their answers of  “world peace.” The stakes are high and the hemlines are higher for these girls. Some of the outfits really make me uncomfortable. My parents wouldn’t allow me to wear belly shirts even in high school but on Toddlers and Tiaras it seems to be ok. People might say, well the girls are so young, its not sexy, it’s cute. Will if still be cute when that girl turns into a teenager and starts thinking for herself? What other world could she possibly know other than makeup, money and beauty? I’d be scared if I saw that girl walking around the hallways of my child’s middle or high school. I personally don’t think that even a $5000 cash prize for best pageant girl could convince me into turning my daughter into somebody like that.

Jackie Barthuly