TLC's Toddlers and Tiaras: The Show About Beauty Pageants for Children.

TLC's show Toddlers and Tiaras will begin its new season on July 24. If you haven't seen this show, you have to do so. Everyone needs to see at least one episode of Toddlers and Tiaras. It is a side of human nature and parenting that you would not believe unless you see it.

What's this television show all about? The TLC website for the show explains.
"On any given weekend, on stages across the country, little girls and boys parade around wearing makeup, false eyelashes, spray tans and fake hair to be judged on their beauty, personality and costumes. Toddlers and Tiaras follows families on their quest for sparkly crowns, big titles, and lots of cash."
Toddlers & Tiaras

You read it right. These are beauty pageants for little girls mainly, but also for little boys. Parents all over the United States and of all social and economical backgrounds every weekend enter their children in beauty pageants. They spend huge amounts of money to do so. The goal? Cash, cars, ribbons, trophies, and something else that really can't be defined as sad needs of the mommas and daddies and grandmothers of these children.

It is amazing what these parents go though to have their children compete. The child must compete in several categories, beauty, talent and usually some kind of special costume category.

Most of these pageants are "glam" pageants, short for "glamorous." To compete in these "glam" pageants the little girl or boy must be just that, "glamorous". The parents on this show have testified that they can spend hundreds even thousands of dollars on each of the costumes the child wears in a pageant. Most pageants require at least two if not three. There is a costume for beauty and for talent and for the special costume category. Since these children compete in many pageants, each child has several outfits. Although some mothers and grandmothers make the outfits and costumes themselves, most parents have them designed and made by professional pageant people

The "glam" pageants not only require "glam" clothes but also "glam" looks and "glam" pictures. These little girls, three and five and six and ten year olds have their hair teased and coifed until any big hair enthusiasts would be jealous. I have seen parents on this program use hair extensions to make their child's hair longer and thicker. I have seen them use what our grandmothers used to call 'switches', fake hair, to create more curls. Then the hair is sprayed with enough hair spray to keep it from moving in a tornado. Concrete.

The mothers and sometimes even fathers do not stop there. "Glam" requires make up, and lots of it. Mothers hire professional people who actually come to pageants to do the makeup and hair for these children. Other mothers do it themselves. These little three-year-old and five year old and eight year old painted babies wear foundation and eyeliner and eye makeup and mascara and blush and lip liner and lipstick. Many even wear false eyelashes. Momma has the eyelash curler at the ready. At this point the little five year old resembles a sixties streetwalker.

The little girls and boys are also "tanned." The child is put in his or her underwear and the mother or professionals they hire spray tanning junk on the child. "Glam" pageants require that look.

What if the child is loosing his or her teeth? These pageants do not accept normal looking children. So what's a parent to do? Worry not. There are fake teeth a parent can use to insure their child has his or her best smile.

I know that normal people are reeling at this point. They are shouting, "This is crazy!"

Wait, There's more.

These pageants require preparation. This show follows these parents as they take their children to voice lessons and singing lessons and dance lessons. Many parents hire professionals to design the routines of the child. Those who cannot afford a professional design the routine for the child themselves, but hire another professional to fine-tune it. Many parents even hire professional pageant people to teach their three-year-old, five-year-old, eight-year-old how to walk and smile and wave and hit their marks for the beauty part of the pageant. None of this is cheap.

The monetarily outlay doesn't stop there. Professional pageant photographers do the pictures that are required for entry. There is an entire industry around these pageants of people who make their living taking pictures, making the clothes, doing the make up and hair, and coaching of all kinds for just these pageants. What a gig.

There is also the expenses of travel to the pageants and the food and hotels when the family gets there. There is nothing cheap about his hobby.

These pageants require a huge amount of work. These parents take their children to their lessons, but they also make sure their child practice at home. It takes a lot of practice. The parents and their children practice the talent every day and they practice the walks and waves and smiles and hitting their marks for the beauty section every day, if not more than once a day. Think about the difficulty of getting a three-year-old or five-year-old to do this.

Why do these parents do this? When asked they give the same kinds of reasons. Parents say that it builds self-esteem, it gives their children confidence, it will give them an edge in life. Parents also say that their children love it, just love it.

NONSENSE. This is all nonsense.

What is really going on here? In my opinion is a momma or a momma and daddy or momma and grandma are living life though their child. These are shallow mommies and grandmas and daddies. To them it is important that their child is beautiful.

There is a greater cost to these pageants then the huge monetary outlay. These little girls and sometimes little boys are sexed up. They are made up to look like little adults and sexy adults. Their routines for the special costume and talent segments often involve very sexy dance moves and sexy lyrics. It bothers me to see a five-year do a bump and grind that can rival a stripper, but these little ones can. They shimmy and shake their little butts and strut around with the best of them. They do sexy looks and sexy moves. The songs are often inappropriate for the age level of the child. Their costumes are often sexy.

I have seen this show more than once. It is like watching a train wreck. It is horrible but you can't take your eyes off of it. There is nothing sweet and pretty about these pageants. If that were what was all about there would be no need for the make up and big glued down hair and false eyelashes and fake tans. These pageants are sexy. That is disgusting. It is horrible. It is hideous.

What does this teach the child? It teaches them that being beautiful is the most important thing in the world. Brains do not matter. Character doesn't matter. Beauty matters. How is this going to affect the future of these children? What happens if these pretty children do not grow into pretty adults? What happens if they do? The values of these children have been twisted.

I do believe that these pageants are a form of child abuse. These are loving parents. I don't doubt that, but this is still abuse. These parents are misguided. In these days of what seems to be ever increasing pedophilia, these pageants are wrong. They feed the wrong things in every way.