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 centre 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. (Excerpt from bbc.co.uk)
Watch the full documentary now
August 9th, 2009 at 17:36
I wonder who want’s do this – the kids or the mothers. All the mothers seem to be living their lives through the successes of their children, either via not having a life of their own or putting the responsbility of having to support their family on their child.
In addition, I’m seriously concerned about the values being imposed on these poor kids. What ever happened to virtues such as intelligence and individualism (because lets face it these poor kids all look the same)? And just being a freakin’ kid! The kids’ (and their mums’!) self worth is so wrapped up in what they look like that I hope they keep it because without it I don’t think they or their mums will have much left. All these mothers are damaged goods and projecting their insecurities onto their little girls thereby creating another generation of damaged goods.
This is so rediculous and it is clearly traumatic for the kids. And what happens to the poor little girls that don’t make it – are they now all of a sudden not pretty enough. They really have nothing else other than their looks to fall back on through no fault of their own. It’s pathetic and sad…
August 17th, 2009 at 17:33
MediaCurves.com just conducted a study with 300 viewers of a video featuring the recent controversy surrounding child beauty pageants. The results showed that the majority of viewers reported that “disturbed” and “sad” were the emotions the felt most while watching the video. The study found that 84% of viewers reported that they felt the long-term effect on contestants was negative. For more in-depth results, please visit http://www.mediacurves.com/Culture/J7495-pageants/Index.cfm.
Thanks,
Ben
August 18th, 2009 at 00:44
That’s what I like about these types of documentaries, they tell a story that are out of the ordinary. Children beauty contests are really out of the ordinary. Of course we have opinion about this but will it matter? Opinions are projected anyway. For these girls, projected opinions about how they are perceived is everything to them simply because they will end up with nothing else.
September 21st, 2009 at 22:43
Silly silly silly.
November 14th, 2009 at 02:59
I think that the mothers of those very young girls are doing something wrong for them ,and instead of “promoting”or “ensuring” their children’s future, they might affect the kid personality …causing them loss of confidence and self esteem .I’ve notice that Madison and the singing rich girl ,where pushed so hard by their mothers forcing them to act and desire something that they didn’t yet discover …It is hard to understand and feel comfortable during this forced “preparation”..Because it’s to early for their ages and they are not ready yet, U can not suddenly rush a child to become over night a teenager?!?!? the girls had no clue about what where doing and why they where doing it ,not To mention the stressed out parents putting so much pressure upon the little shoulders .I have nothing against the idea of a beauty contest for children …but do they really have to put so much make up on? Why is it so difficult for the parents to understand Something so simple like …answering the question ..What kind of beauty has a child …why do they bring us joy ?BECAUSE OF THEIR PURITY!!!!
Anyway I am sad for those tow beautiful girls and i hope that someday they will have their own mind and be able to decide for them personal options despite the bad influence that they receive from parents . And yes i must say it can’t help it! “baby-es” with acrylic nails and a lot of make up are FREAKY and the show the best source of entertaining any PEDOFILE
December 3rd, 2009 at 10:47
i am appalled at the idea of this kind of exploitation. This should be illegal. i cannot wrap my brain around the thinking of these parents , pageant organizers, judges. Messing up childrens lives,
and i have to ask Where are the fathers. girls will have a hard enough time living in this world.
ièm glad the truth is shown. maybe something can be done about it. I live in canada i dont know of any child pageants but i must check it out.
Everything is outward appearance, what about the childs spirit. How will these children deal with ages… there is so much resistance to growing old in our culture.
dear dear kids. i was outraged at these mothers ..and the reaction of the sister who choerographed her little sisters dance was too much, where is childrens services and advocates.
the organizers must be looking at the dollars this can make.
the mom who said that there was too much make-up on the other kids called it exploitation yet she can;t see that that is what she is doing, and even if her child gained self confidence because of it there are other ways to do that! her was a kid with pressure to win for money.
the mother with the kid and the other sister just was frightening… what pressure, the child was so visible unhappy yet the mom continued to pursue her child.
wrong wrong wrong on all levels
December 3rd, 2009 at 14:59
That in a country that considers pedophilia to be a major crime… it has a bit of hypocricy in it doesn’t it?
Those children aren’t even judged on how good a child they are, they are being judged on how close they can be pulled and painted into adult-looking clowns.
Something nobody mentioned: make-up and paint do deteriorate the health of the skin. So these kids aren’t only psychologically mutilated here.
I’d be less shocked if at least the kids seemed to enjoy it, which was not the case.
And oh god they even made them fill their chest with who knows what for that “formal wear” thing. They suddenly all had a bossom.
December 3rd, 2009 at 15:05
Yeah, this is really creepy stuff. I don’t know how the parents can justify doing this to little children. It’s perverse. There must be a lot of pedophiles running these things. Who else would actually enjoy watching children paraded around like this?
December 13th, 2009 at 21:16
There is nothing but insecurity and pain in the eyes of these poor girls and their mothers
December 13th, 2009 at 23:23
When you see a mother dressing up her child to look like a pint sized hooker, you can bet she is divorced or married to a coward of a man.
I couldn’t watch the whole thing. Those mothers need a kick in the ass that is for sure.
December 13th, 2009 at 23:45
It should be illegal to give minors cosmetic surgery unless they’re missing half their face or something.
December 17th, 2009 at 15:13
This is no different than little boys being pressured by dads to be good in sports. There is a show for everything. Dogs, cats, cars, kids, etc..people pick something and pursue it to extremes, spending 10x the amount of the winnings to do it and get a cheap reward. Mind boggeling as it is everyone wants to be special and if they arn’t they live vicariously through somebody else. Been to a boxing match lately?
December 17th, 2009 at 16:04
Karen, what planet did you fall off? It is the sexual exploitation that makes the offensive difference in child ‘beauty’ pagents. Boys may be pressured by dads to excell but not to be sexually appealing in the process. I watched one backstage demented bitch of a mother who told her 13 year old girl, who she had dressed like a hooker, to shake what god had given her. Putting false teeth covers on those little girls is about as disturbing as it gets, not to mention the Tammy Faye Baker makeup and false eyelashes. They are not having these children judged on the natural beauty of innocence but these moron half-wit mothers are striving to turn them into miniture sex objects. I hope you are not a mother! If you are I sincerely hope the father has more damn sense.
December 17th, 2009 at 19:17
Reb: You’re absolutely right. Dressing up little girls like hookers and giving them cosmetic surgery to make them look “prettier” is NOT AT ALL like pressuring boys to be good in sports, unless Karen is talking about stretching them out on the rack to make them better at basketball or something. A more equivalent example would be stripping little boys down to their underwear, oiling them up and parading them around the stage like bodybuilders. And people probably do that somewhere too. I sure as hell wouldn’t be surprised.
December 17th, 2009 at 19:53
Tim, when airheads compare sports with child sexual abuse, and that is exactly what these pagents are all about, that shows the mentality that allows this garbage to continue. Any right thinking person who watches those insane mongrel butt ugly women encouraging those children to imitate grown women in such a sexually blatant manner should know immediately those mothers have a very serious mental problem. I couldn’t stand to sit and watch one of those pagents and it breaks the heart of any feeling person to see those children forced to degrade themselves to please a total lunatic. There is a reason these mothers do this and it is all about them and not the child. That is the truly scary part. I bet every child molester from miles around love these shows. Wouldn’t you be sickened to know some damn pervert took pictures of your child so they could use them to masturbate by?! That was the confession of one convicted pedophile on a special report I saw a few years ago. He said it was the best place to go to get aroused. Absolutely sickening.
December 21st, 2009 at 22:06
These parents are absolutely ridiculous, trying to live a life they never had by using their kids. What kind of mother worries about her child not being cute enough?
January 14th, 2010 at 10:20
Ugh. This nonsense is spreading beyond the USA?
What’s wrong with these women?
January 30th, 2010 at 02:55
Of all the girls profiled, I am most concerned for Madison. She looks dead. Her eyes are as hollow as those of the children I’ve seen photographed in WWII concentration camps. This child is in danger of becoming a psychological cripple and she needs help. Someone has got to step in and try to protect her. She needs a friend who can help her grow through her authentic self–someone who values the integrity of inner beauty and can help encourage her to develop a healthy self-confidence. Her older sister seems like she might be able to mentor her a little bit, but I think Madison really needs professional help at this point. I hope that there is someone reading this who knows this family and has the courage to reach out in a discreet way that doesn’t threaten the mother’s sense of authority.
But the mother has got to learn to stop abusing her daughter like this. I wish that blaming her her brought me some sense of satisfaction or reparation but it doesn’t. She isn’t consciously violating her daughter–she’s just projecting her own soul wounds onto her daughter’s psyche without realizing it. Emotional wounds are inherited from one generation to the next. But they don’t have to be. Madison and her mom both need guidance and healing and it is unfortunate that their church doesn’t seem to offer that. In fact, it looks like their church is actually making everything worse. A minister who is spiritually spineless enough to “bless” this kind of abuse and lead the congregation into colluding with the mother’s exploitive behavior should not be practicing. His message is patently anti-Christian and this fact is clear even to a non-believer. If a definitive tenant of Christianity holds that Christ sacrificed himself to free humanity to spiritually redeem itself from the material world, how can this congregation pray to Christ for help in winning a meat-market contest and still think they are practicing their faith? They really think that overvaluing appearance is an orthodox practice? These guys need a remedial critical thinking class and Sunday school lessons.
January 30th, 2010 at 04:51
This whole thing is absolutely disgusting in so many ways. What bothers me most, though, is the hyper-sexualization of these little girls. It’s so… gross and wrong.