Glitz Pageants

I am getting on my soap box so if you don't want to hear it, then stop reading.

A couple of months ago I was watching an MTV show on beauty pageants. These high glitz pageants were focused on little girls and I decided to watch it (I did major amounts of pageants as a girl myself). What I saw MORTIFIED me. These girls had on ridiculous amounts of make-up, they were getting air-brush tans, they wear wigs, and they have these things called "flippers" which are essentially fake top teeth which makes their smile perfect which comes at a rather pricey $300 (because many of the girls are missing teeth). I was disgusted. My first thought was Jon Benet Ramsey. When I competed in pageants, it wasn't anything like this. You wore a little blush, maybe some mascara and then some lip gloss. No tans, no fake teeth - real hair...etc. So, anyhow. I was on ebay earlier today and somehow landed in the clothing section and saw some of the glitz pageant dresses. They kept referring to them as "high glitz" dresses so I did a little research and found out there are 2 types of pageant systems: 1)high glitz (as described above) and 2) natural. Natural pageants focus on exactly that - natural aspects of beauty - no make up is allowed, no tans, no flippers, etc. And just for kicks, there are some pageants that manage to fall in-between so they reach a broader crowd. These pageants aren't as glamorous as high glitz but they aren't as simple as the natural pageants. Since I don't have a little girl (and don't personally plan on having any more children) I should never have to worry about this pageant issue. However, if I did - my daughter would NOT participate in anything like this!!! If she wanted to compete in pageants and was old enough to ask me to do it then we could discuss it. I mean - I won a lot of scholarship money in college by competing and I totally felt like the experiences changed my life. But putting your toddler in a pageant of this nature? absolutely not.

I am going to post some of the pictures I ran across today just so you can see what I'm talking about. Most of these pictures are for dress sizes below 5 so we're talking YOUNG girls. And on EBAY, these dresses are going for $300-$600'ish!!!!! I just can't imagine having a daughter and putting her in a dress like this - not to mention the hair, makeup, tan, etc. Ok, I'm getting off my box. Here are the scary pictures.


could this dress be ANY shorter?!?!?!?