I am really, really curious to see what becomes of these queens when they hit their teens. anorexia? Sexual promiscuity? Cutting? You can’t be told you’re perfect, then scolded for being a loser, and not escape unscathed.

I’m trying to think objectively on this topic, but my stomach is churning too much.

I can just about buy the idea of a child beauty pageant. And I can respect that the experience itself can be quite different from the way it’s sometimes harshly and condemningly portrayed, based on comments like Dopey LaRue’s. Just about.

But the sight of girls at such a young age being dolled up to look not only like, well, dolls, but dolls portrayed in their *late teens*…turns my stomach.

These are children.

And I just can’t get past that.

In the pageants I participated in, which were standard pageants like the ones you see in these shows, we were judged predominately in the categories of community service and outreach, congeniality, and our personal interview. I never for a moment doubted that the importance of these categories far exceeded how I looked in my formal wear. With regard to hair and makeup – to the best of my recollection, not once was mine or anyone I knew done by a professional. As I did my own, it was entirely my decision which products I used. In fact, I often wore my hair in sponge curlers for two days prior to a competition just so I could avoid harsh products. Now, as a grown woman, I continue to embrace the qualities I learned in pageantry – the importance of volunteering and kindness towards everyone, even when they are your competition – and I can say with utmost certainty that I am not left with psychological scars from the experience. I certainly understand the stigma that goes with pageants; however, I believe a large amount of the public’s perception of them is misinformed or based on a very small sampling of a larger, more respectable industry.