Little Miss Perfect/Toddlers and Tiaras

[ColdInCanada11]

That's how all of my ballet competitions worked, and in Irish dance, a feis only counted in your standings if you had a certain number of competitors. Am I the only person that wouldn't want a trophy from a competition that had 2 competitors? Maybe I'm too much of a perfectionist, but I would consider it worthless.

Other than Toddlers and Tiaras, I'm completely unversed in the pageant world. Does anyone know if the bigger pageants that focus on teenagers and young adults also have all of the extra/optional categories? It makes sooo much more sense now why some people had won certain awards at pageants on the show- they were potentially the only one competing for it

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

Also--I don't get why they don't combine age divisions or something where there are like 2 kids in one of them.

For example, my cousin was into dance. At her dance comps, if there were only like 2 teams in a division, they combined it with a bigger division so the kids would have some legit competition. Parents didn't like to pay $ and drive all the all the way to a comp for their kids to compete against one team.

It's like pageants are opposite, parents don't mind paying a ton of money for their kid to compete against like two girls because it means their "special little snowflake" is guaranteed a prize.

[KSUViolet06]

Typically, when you get to be a teen, you either:

*Quit pageants for some other activity like a sport.
*Keep doing these little rinky-dink pageants with like 2 competitors in them and call yourself a "beauty queen".
*Decide to quit these pageants and move on to the more serious pageants like Miss Teen USA.

I have followed Miss USA and Miss America for awhile and surprisingly enough, the girls who do the best at it (and end up Miss "City" or Miss State USA) are not typically girls who have been doing pageants since birth. Some of the girls didn't even start until they competed in a local Teen USA at the high school level.

That's why I find it so funny that so many of these moms want their girls to be Miss USA and Miss America. Those pageants are MUCH different from Little Miss Treasured Dollz and doing pageants since birth doesn't = growing up and winning a huge national pageant.

[ree-Xi]

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

Typically, when you get to be a teen, you either:

*Quit pageants for some other activity like a sport.
*Keep doing these little rinky-dink pageants with like 2 competitors in them.
*Decide to move on to the more serious pageants like Miss Teen USA circuit.

I have followed Miss USA and Miss America for awhile and surprisingly enough, the girls who do the best at it (and end up Miss "City" or Miss State USA) are not typically girls who have been doing pageants since birth. Some of the girls didn't even start until they competed in a local Teen USA at the high school level.

That's why I find it so funny that so many of these moms want their girls to be Miss USA and Miss America. Those pageants are MUCH different from Little Miss Treasured Dollz and doing pageants since birth doesn't = growing up and winning a huge national pageant.

From what I could garner from a show (that just a few episodes) was about a SC Pageant coach, called "King of the Crown". One episode featured the infamous Miss Teen SC, Kaitlin Upton, trying to redeem herself and prove that she wasn't um, less than intelligent - you have to watch it; the scene where she is practicing for the interview is priceless.

Anyway, one of his students was competing in a "glitz" pageant, the type of pageant which most of the T&T episodes feature. He had never been to a glitz pageant. Once at the pageant, he started freaking out when he saw some of the "routines" the contestants (the random flailing) were doing during "outfit of choice" and/or talent part, or whatever they called it.

I wish I could find full episodes. They were well worth the time purely for the snark value.

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by Jen

I loved King of the Crown because the guy was just the king of snark. He was watching these Pro-Am routines and was stunned at one girl who he kept saying could not be 12 lol.

I have seen King of the Crown and liked it. That ep was hilarious. It just shows that people who are involved in "grown up" pageants think those other pageants are ridiculous. He used to see some of the girls overdone "glitz" outfits and be like "ummm that is totally cool if you're a stripper."

I remember in one ep, the guy said something like "we get girls coming in here who have done glitz pageants and you almost have to start all over with teaching them how to dress." In the more serious teen pageant systems (Miss USA and such), you actually get points OFF for having a dress that is overdone like that, or being too tan.

[KSUViolet06]

Why are 90% of these people convinced that pageants are going to lead to their kid being an actress or TV star?

Mom: "Lauren is going to end up being in her own show. Like Hannah Montana."

The odds of a kid becoming a famous TV or movie star are CRAZY.

And I love the "We put her in pageants to help boost her modeling career" thing.

I'm pretty sure that actual modeling agencies are not looking for kids who look and dress like they're 23 in photos. Any child model I've ever met has looked regular and age appropriate.

Also, why put into a kids' head that they're destined to be that? The odds are not in their favor.

I'd think that growing up believing that she's a "special little snowflake" who is destined to be a model would really hurt a kid's self-esteem once they got older and realized that they were not model/TV material.

[BabyPiNK_FL]

I agree, the thousands they spend on travel, clothes, and beauty treatments and trainers could be spent on traveling to agencies and professional pictures. It might even be less!

[Xidelt]

Originally Posted by Jen

Did anyone see last night's episode? I can't be the only one that thought of Brandi Rae seeing 31-year-old Brandi whateverhernamewas win Mini Supreme for the ages 10 and up group lol.

That was some crazy, right there.

I SAW THAT!! That woman is CRAZY!!! What normal 31 yr old hangs out with and competes with children??? A few of my favorite moments:

Her mom still does her hair and comes with her to her pageants. She wasn't particularly happy with her hair for that pageant. I wouldn't be particularly happy with my daughter.

Brandi's comment at the end that Jesus answers our prayers and she is competing to glorify Jesus. I'm pretty sure Jesus thinks you're a dumbass.

Her talent outfit where she dressed up as Glenda the Good Witch and did a scene from the Wizard of Oz with a 5 yr old. She made some comment about people loving her Glenda outfit. No, they are probably staring at you in horror.

We've got glitter, yes we do! We've got glitter, how 'bout you?

[MUSK81]

As bad as she was, I thought that dentist mom who doesn't want a normal life was even worse ...

[ree-Xi]

Back to the question on how each of the three kids featured in each epi usually win something...I wonder if they tape like 10 kids for each pageant, then choose the three who actually end up receiving some crown/award. It might explain why we see so many of the same kids from other episodes in the background.

As for taping the days and week up until the pageant, reality shows often have the people change clothes to make it seem like it's a different day; or vise-versa, if they want a day to look long, they have the people wear the same thing to look like it was a very busy day.

In the case of the former, it's easy to get a week's worth of "preparation time" on video for a bunch of different kids.

ETA:
---------------------
TLC casting “Toddlers and Tiaras”

2 April, 2010 (22:43) |
TLC’s Toddlers and Tiaras is filming around the country. If you and your beauty pageant princess wish to appear on an episode of the Toddlers and Tiaras please check the list of states that the show will be filming in and if you live in any of those states, submit your interest in appearing on TLC’s show to the email below.
Toddlers & Tiaras will soon be filming in a town near you!!! So if you want to show off your glitz and glamour, then tell us why you and your pageant kid should be featured on the show.
Toddlers & Tiaras is currently looking for pageant contestants in the following states:
West Virginia
Nevada
Montana
Oklahoma
Texas
Mississippi
Arizona
Submit your application today and you could be one of 3 pageant families featured on an upcoming episode!
To apply, xxxxxxxxxxxx
Send in your completed application and requested photos to xxxxxxxxx

[shirley1929]

Lurker here...but if you like T&T and LMP (my guilty pleasures too!) go to YouTube and look up "Painted Babies". My TiVo picked up "Painted Babies at 17" the other night. It's a documentary followup on two pageant babies that BBC had followed in 1995 when they were 5 years old. In 2007, they followed up with the two girls to see what they were doing now that they were about to graduate high school. I found it FASCINATING - one girl who was a bratty pro at the whole thing had completely dropped pageants by age 7. The other girl was still doing them in hopes to win $$ and cars for her grandma..sad...

Seriously, look up "Painted Babies" (the whole thing is on YouTube) and then watch "Painted Babies at 17" which was on TLC the other night, but might be on YT as well.

All those shows are trainwrecks I seem to be glued to - a whole underworld I never really knew existed!

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by shirley1929

Lurker here...but if you like T&T and LMP (my guilty pleasures too!) go to YouTube and look up "Painted Babies". My TiVo picked up "Painted Babies at 17" the other night. It's a documentary followup on two pageant babies that BBC had followed in 1995 when they were 5 years old. In 2007, they followed up with the two girls to see what they were doing now that they were about to graduate high school. I found it FASCINATING - one girl who was a bratty pro at the whole thing had completely dropped pageants by age 7. The other girl was still doing them in hopes to win $$ and cars for her grandma..sad...

Seriously, look up "Painted Babies" (the whole thing is on YouTube) and then watch "Painted Babies at 17" which was on TLC the other night, but might be on YT as well.

All those shows are trainwrecks I seem to be glued to - a whole underworld I never really knew existed!

I have seen BOTH of those.

The older lady on the ep of T&T TOTALLY reminded me of the girl who was still doing cheesy kid pageants at 17.

I found it funny that the other girl and her parents look back on it and say how silly it was that they were so into it.

I might add that 17-year-old beauty queen had no college plans, while the other girl was going away to school.

Interesting, especially since sooo many of these parents think these pageants are going to open acting, modeling, etc doors for their kids. Most of the time, they don't and your kid stops doing them after you've wasted thousands of dollars. lol.

[shirley1929]

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

I have seen BOTH of those.

The older lady on the ep of T&T TOTALLY reminded me of the girl who was still doing cheesy kid pageants at 17.

I found it funny that the other girl and her parents look back on it and say how silly it was that they were so into it.

I might add that 17-year-old beauty queen had no college plans, while the other girl was going away to school.

Interesting, especially since sooo many of these parents think these pageants are going to open acting, modeling, etc doors for their kids. Most of the time, they don't and your kid stops doing them after you've wasted thousands of dollars. lol.

Boo. Thought maybe I was giving you something you'd not seen before! I was amazed at how poised/smart/pulled together/down to earth the one girl (Brooke?) was. She was the brat when she was 5 and her mother was more than irksome. The Louisiana family just made me sad...really sad.

[ree-Xi]

That girl still cannot sing. "I'm a blond yeah, yeah, yeah"...

[AnchorAlum]

The painted babies were done by the BBC as documentaries.

Completely pathetic. As are all of these pageants - has anyone ever seen a slender mother with anything past a high school education?

Disclaimer! I used to rep several lines that sold those socks with all the frills and matching bows and headbands, and the crinolines that went under those dresses to pageant stores. So even though I was cringing inside I sold a TON of those things. Made very good money. Those mothers can't afford clothes for themselves but they'll drop hundreds on one dress.

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by AnchorAlum

The painted babies were done by the BBC as documentaries.

Completely pathetic. As are all of these pageants - has anyone ever seen a slender mother with anything past a high school education?

Nope.

And yeah, it's ridiculous how much money goes toward that. One mom on one ep said flat out "I'd like to fix our house, sell it, and move to something bigger, but pageants are more important."

It's funny how so many moms say "pageants are an investment in my daughter's future."

No. Just be honest and say "she does this because I'm fat and ugly and I'm living vicariously."