“Be yourself”. “I want to save the world. “You are beautiful just the way you are”. These are just some of the responses under 15 year old girls say to win the crown .meanwhile she is wearing layer of makeup ,has sky high hair ,a fake tan, and a flipper .child beauty pageants have many negative impacts on girls of any age. It decreases their self-esteem of the contestants dramatically .creates an unrealistic image to follow, and the cost and stress it causes for the families is enormous. A study of 131 female beauty pageant contestants was done it found that most of the contestants (89.6%) reported being a pageant finalist or winner and 55.2% had competed at the national/international level ,of theses contestants over one-fourth (26%) of them said or perceived they had an eating disorder which reportedly began at 16.25 years. All these diagnosis are because to win they have to be beautiful and skinny, the skinner you are the better. In addition staying skinny the girls also have to deal with losing the intense process of training and preparing is completely demolished if the girls loses because there is only one winner and many losers. Unlike in sports teams where if you lose you have support of your team is not about beauty or body, you are congratulating for training and training girls in pageants only receive the negative comments. As the girls who continue to lose, they feel less and less of themselves, which decreases their self-esteem incredibly.
The entry fees for beauty pageants start at 400$ + 500$ and can increase depending on the competition. The contestants budget will only increase after buying the outfit which cost at most 8000$, in addition to props ,the hair , makeup, coach and travelling fees, the total cost of the pageant can come to 10 000$ .Some of parents whose children compete in are now in debt. The time of practicing and preparing for the pageant is enormous. The girls are push to do things they do not want to and optimally it is taking away their childhood.
“She got her looks from her father he’s a plastic surgeon”. All competition