Community Corner

Letter to Editor: The Ugly Truth Behind Child Beauty Pageants

Adelphi student Sana Karim submitted the following letter.

“Someday, I'll be Miss America, and that will be the happiest day of my life,” chants former five-year-old beauty contestant Swan Brooner.

The make-up, stylish hairdos, fancy gowns and sparkly crowns all seem to be contributing factors to every little girl’s dream.

They can also be the recipe for disaster.

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Since the early 1900s, women across the world have entered themselves into beauty pageants. It’s become such a popular competitive activity that even parents are giving their young daughters the chance to participate. These girls present themselves before a panel of judges in the hopes of obtaining a crown and representing a certain state as a reward for their good looks.

Pageants place the importance of a female’s physical appearance above their personality factors. This promotes the idea that a girl’s self-worth is only linked to her appearance, completely ignoring the fact that they are human beings with feelings. These young contestants are expected to behave like young adults and spend hours practicing speeches and rehearsing walks rather than focusing on schoolwork and playing with friends. It is evident that the lifestyle of a young beauty pageant participant is full of nothing but stress and negative self-evaluation, which leads to various physical and mental disorders overtime.

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Although being chosen from a whole plethora of girls and crowned as beauty of the year can be quite the self-esteem booster, it also makes a young girl very self-conscious in the sense that she is just a mere object standing before thousands of viewers from all over the world. There are just as many male viewers critiquing these females and setting a high, unnecessary standard of beauty that is incredibly limited.

“A child, especially a female who is going to pay so much attention to her looks and knows she is being assessed for it, is very prone to develop eating disorders, such as anorexia or bulimia,” Lucia Grosaru, clinical psychologist and president of the Romanian Institute “Sic Cogito," said.

Not only are these pageants dangerous, but they also cost a pretty penny.  According to the Pageant News Bureau, “the pursuit of a title and a tiara has grown into a $5 billion-a-year industry. An estimated 3,000 pageants draw 250,000 entrants a year, and parents spend thousands of dollars on pageants.”

According to Charles Dunn, publisher of Pageantry Magazine, “some parents even take out loans to pay for the pageant expenses. Often because of this additional financial stress, parents get mad and scold their children when they don’t win.”

The doubt of a young individual’s beauty by a vast sample of the female population, not to mention the standards set by society, puts way too much pressure on a young girl. The harmful side effects still remain either unnoticed or neglected by pageant promoters, as their job is to bring in as much money as possible. This may lead to children developing issues and questioning their own self-worth. These pageants are no different than a car show, as these young girls are put on a pedestal and showcased on display. 

I believe pageants should set the minimum age requirement of the contestant at 12 years old. According to J. Geoff Malta, adolescent therapist, “this is the final stage of development, when a girl is physically an adult.” She would also be able to cope better with losing. Although I am against the government legislating social norms, I would encourage them to do so if a young girl is ever forced into joining a pageant against her own will.

Child beauty pageants should be the kid’s choice; not the parent's.


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