FriendBurst Blog

Today on Good Morning America, correspondent Lara Spencer did an interview with 8 year old Britney Campbell and her mother, Kerry. Little Britney is an aspiring beauty pageant queen and her mom is doing everything she can to make her a success at it….including injecting Botox in her daughter’s face to remove her “wrinkles” (just what kind of wrinkles could an 8 year old possibly have is what I want to know) and even going so far as waxing her legs, too. Using Botox and waxing an 8 YEAR OLD????? Her mother wanted to do this interview to tell her side of the story regarding her rather extreme methods of making her daughter “beautiful”. Brtiney is an adorable 8 year old girl with dimples. It’s those “dimples” that she views as wrinkles. When this segment was over, I wanted to throw up and then call child services on this woman. I sure as heck hope someone did.

The subject of little girls in beauty pageants is a volatile one. Many say that the way the little girls are made up sexualizes them at too young of an age. Some people say it’s just harmless dressing up fun. Personally I agree with those that think a little girl shouldn’t be wearing more make up than an average 20 year old would and dressing up in rather provocative clothes considering what age they are. An 8 year old pageant contestant should NOT be wearing a similar outfit to a 16 year old pageant contestant. There is the matter of maturity involved and heck, there is a matter of just good taste and common sense, too. In most of these cases, I believe the “well intentioned” parents have their eyes on the prize more than their own child. Their lust for a trophy, sash and title becomes their focus over what they are doing to their innocent children. Dressing them and parading them in this way is bad enough, but when you are injecting poison into your little girl’s face, that’s just taking this insanity just too far! I would say that the mother has self image issues of her own and is projecting them onto her daughter. If the mother wants to use botox on herself FINE but using something like this on her own child who is too young to make her own decisions and have her own say in the matter is just selfish, wrong and flat out NUTS!! And I wont even go into the self image issues, eating disorders and other assorted problems in the perception of one’s self that these pageants only add to as well and can only wonder what’s going to happen to little Britney when her mother thinks she is just a bit too chubby. Will she then teach her what  just the right method of sticking her fingers down her throat is? Sadly, she probably will.

Parents are being taken to task these days for their children’s poor eating habits. I want to know who is policing these “pageant parents”?  Everyone only gets one childhood.  Why can’t they allow their children to have one? And instead of focusing on just how pretty their little girls are, why can’t these parents encourage their daughters to become a well rounded individual instead? Even the prettiest little girl’s looks will fade someday. So much focus should not be placed on just their beauty. These pageants should encourage some kind of scholastic achievement award besides the usual awards for beauty perhaps in an effort to take the focus off looks alone. Maybe it’s just too much to ask because brains just aren’t as pretty as a painted up little girl prancing around in bikini with a stuffed top is.

As long as there are pretty little girls in this world, there will always be pageants. That is just the way it is and will probably never change. But what NEEDS to change are the priorities, practices and standards of pageant parents and of the pageants themselves. If that day ever comes, perhaps then little 8 year old girls wont have to hold ice on her swollen faces where Mommy just gave her a botox injection.