Baby Beauty Queens
As the American phenomenon of the children's beauty pageant hits the UK, this documentary uncovers a surreal new world where nine-year-olds get fake tans and seven-year-olds wear contact lenses.
With the grand final of the first ever Mini Miss UK beauty contest taking place at a leisure center in Milton Keynes, it soon becomes clear that tantrums and tiaras may prevail over perfect poses and pouts. The mastermind behind the pageant is a middle-aged ex-beauty queen, who plans the entire event from her stairwell in Colchester.
The film follows three girls and their mothers in the lead up to the big event, and as they prepare to dazzle the judges the real reasons why they are all desperate to be crowned Mini Miss UK become apparent.
From the evangelical Christians who are convinced that God will help them win the pageant to the disadvantaged kid for whom the contest holds the key to a better life, the film portrays an eccentric, and at times disturbing, snapshot of modern Britain.
Both these mums stress how important looks are to 'success', yet both could easily have got where they are if they were plain.
Fantasy for parents tis what it is!
Amber reminds me of Veruca Salt. She's a temper tantrum throwing spoiled brat and her mom just laughs it off. Way to go mom.
S*upid people buying into S*upid s*it.
wow these parents are SO superficial, disgusting. They don't deserve the gift of children. The mothers are all like "well i am not forcing her " ... like really.. your morals regarding your child are best on what they "want", not what you believe or what is right for them? And the sexualization of these girls! Disgusting!!! My goodness . It is NOT the same as playing sports for people saying that, it is teaching them that physical appearance is what matters in life, not ability
It is all disgusting. The parents attitudes, the children being taught to act a certain way (mainly a brat) and the people organizing the stupid show. If this is the way the human race is going...I despair! The only positive I could get out of it was for Sasha the wee shy one, who got the confidence boost that she really needed and yet she still remains a sweet girl. Other than that....I felt sick.
Sick mothers
lol! the yummy mommy section gets elevator music!
I think its a bad influence. C'mon Sophie Watson has now 7 piercings,2 tattoos and shes dropped out of school. Even worse she sleeps with boys and drinks! Im only 13 but i know better than that!
Everyone goes on about muslims being obsessed with living by the word of the quran. These born again people are nuts. This is nothing less than child abuse.
Tyler cannot even sing in key. why would her mom tell her to sing when she can't? It's difficult to watch this.
Don't put your daughters in these freak shows, they might grow up to be Lady Gaga.
its become an american pastime lately to judge pre-teen pageants and stage moms. yes they are doing the wrong thing but consider that they are getting the publicity they want out of this. also consider that we, the judging audience, needs more pageants to judge - feeding the whole ugly phenomenon. I say resist the urge to judge others and judge yourself.
this is all very screwed up. just shows how screwed up parents should never have children.
Sorry...they need to teach their children some good sportsmanship. Madison is a spoiled little brat! Perhaps the judges saw that too! I think Sophie looked beautiful and natural and should have won!
If they make these shows and play them on TV....people will watch them.
I'm not, entirely sure, who these "people" are. But networks keep on making shows like this, and based upon today's reality, there has to be a "market share" worthy of exploitation.
Just like: "I didn't vote for the last Government." But they got in.
Lady on part 4...you really are not "suitable" to JUDGE anyone. You are ugly and fat so you don't have the right to tell the judges not to pick someone because they have crossed eyes! Your solution to her problem was to get corrective surgery to fix it. Well...there are things that can help you too! Ever hear of gastric bypass surgery? I don't mean to be cruel, but people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. No one is perfect and what may be beautiful to one person may not necessarily be beautiful to another. Oh wow...and judges in part five, none of you have the right to be judging these beautiful little girls either!! Man in the striped shirt- You are hideous looking! Gahhh...couldn't they pick better "qualified" people to judge? If I was the Mom to one of these girls and saw who was judging my little girl...we would demand our money back and leave. I would then take her to the store, let her pick out her own beautiful tiara and be done with whole entire insane fiasco!
Plastic surgery at SEVEN! Whatever for? Nothing like sending a clear message to your poor child that they are not beautiful enough just the way they were born! It makes me sick to my stomach.
LOL...being "beautiful" is not a talent! And ALL parents think their children are beautiful! And what is up with all the blue eye make up? Must be a UK thing because it's hideous and outdated. Reminds me of the 1980's!
I believe atleast 40% of these little girls will become drug addicts or turn their lives for the worse.
No kid should experience the stress these kids live through
No kid should try and cope with defeat all the time.
can you imagine when they get home. most of these psycho parents are pissed at their little girls for not winning, or take out their frustrations on the little girls or dont know what to do with their feelings and transmit those feelings to their little kids.
these girls will never feel good enough about themselves and will grow up to ruin their lives.
personally I think this should be illegal, it would save so many little lives.
I know that its sounds pathetic, another id**t on the internet commenting out of his a** not know what he is saying.
If you think about it, if at least 10 percent of what I said before is true, than that would be grounds enough cancel these pageants.
this is total SH**...children should do what they love..not joining some stupid beauty pageant contest...and their parents is such an as**hole...the whole baby beauty pageant thing is a so stupid...
I've just been watching a documentary about cruelty to children where the film makers rolled the cameras and at no time intervened to say "stop this now and get the police in ---- this is child abuse we are witnessing". (still got to thank the makers for bringing this to public attention however) . If it were child porn these sickos might be up for some heavy prosection. Does it take a lone genius then to see that, uh.. it's just a matter of degree (and this is pretty way up the scale) ..? I don't know who is more sick, the perpetrators, or me for sitting here and not going out, finding them and drowning them in hair gel. What the f%$k is going on and how did this get to happen while we all sit by? We know serial killer and child abuse pathology is almost exclusively male but these people, the mothers mainly, apart from the organisers and the tranny-from-space training them to walk-like-a-sexual-neurosis, are damaging people with their psychotic stupidity but in a very large, all under the oh so convenient wrap of some miscreant idea of kitsch 'femininity' and for some inconceivable reason no authority appears to have seen fit to criminalise their behaviour. These people are cancer. Cauterise it.
I just saw an episode of mini uk something.... oh my God, how disgusting! How can a mother let her own child go through this??? Do you mothers know how many young adults suffer and struggle for sometimes 15 years with eating disorders, problems of self-esteem, drug addictions... and it's not only because mum and dad were violent, it's because of this rubbish as well.... you poison the brains of your own children... how sad this is. Someone has to get it banned.... you mums should be seeing a team of mental health professionals....
Just like with kids' sports, pageants can either be a fun, healthy experience or a traumatic, demoralizing one depending on how the parents handle it. The girls and moms in the Mini Miss Photogenic contest were all surprisingly sane and well-adjusted about the whole thing. The girls were clearly doing it for their own well-articulated reasons; one even went so far as to raise the money herself by approaching neighbors and local businesses to sponsor her. All the moms in that one were supportive rather than pushy and rightly concerned about the effect it might have on their daughters' self-esteem if they didn't win. It also helped that in this particular pageant none of the girls looked overly made-up or sexualized. In the context of pageants that emphasize natural beauty and age-appropriate fashions, I see nothing wrong with encouraging girls that really want to do it as long as they don't get too disheartened when they lose. Making a blanket statement like "it's child abuse" is just a reflection of the sensationalized portrayal of child beauty pageants in American reality shows, where narcissistic, overbearing moms robbing their daughters of their childhood and wrecking their self-esteem are seen as the norm.
This is a particularly well-balanced documentary series on the subject, showing both the good and the bad. Madison's story was the one I found most heart-wrenching, with her mom Moya very obviously forcing her into it for her own selfish reasons. Most telling was when the pastor at their church asked Madison why she was entering the pageant and she replied, "I don't really know." That and the look of sadness she wore throughout most of the show should have been enough to break her mother's heart, but Moya either doesn't notice or doesn't care. It made me very sad for that poor little girl when, even though she was clearly devastated by losing, Moya was determined to push her on to "conquer the U.S. pageant circuit."
Pageants themselves aren't the problem here - bad parenting is.
these moms are just nuts! horrible and discusting. poor girls. crazy world. :(