Imagine being deprived of your childhood to become a living breathing Barbie and being forced to grow up at a young age. This exact situation is happening to thousands of young girls, under the age of 13 when they start participating in beauty pageants. Beauty pageants for girls under the age of 13 should be illegal, due to all the long lasting consequences they can have on them.
In France, recently, the government has voted to ban beauty pageants for girls under 13. In addition, anyone who is associated with the pageant, including parents and organizers, can get a fine of up to $40,000 and 2 years in prison (Healy). The United States should also consider doing this and having the same punishments. These beauty pageants sexualize these little girls and, most of the time, it is forced on them by their parents. They make them wear revealing clothes and make them learn inappropriate poses, they put flippers on them (fake teeth) to hide the gaps in their baby teeth, they spray tan them, and put tons of makeup on them.This all happens with children as young as five. Some people, including myself, believe that most of the time, parents enter their little girls in beauty pageants more for themselves than for the girl 's own experience. For example, In the show …show more content…
In the beginning, her mom would make the costumes because she couldn 't afford to buy them, but eventually she took to borrowing money from relatives to pay for it all. "There were many nights where I had nothing to eat but Pepperidge Farms gingerbread cookies because all of the money went towards the pageants," says Rose. "To this day, she sends those cookies to me because she thinks I like them, but they just generate bad memories."
In France, recently, the government has voted to ban beauty pageants for girls under 13. In addition, anyone who is associated with the pageant, including parents and organizers, can get a fine of up to $40,000 and 2 years in prison (Healy). The United States should also consider doing this and having the same punishments. These beauty pageants sexualize these little girls and, most of the time, it is forced on them by their parents. They make them wear revealing clothes and make them learn inappropriate poses, they put flippers on them (fake teeth) to hide the gaps in their baby teeth, they spray tan them, and put tons of makeup on them.This all happens with children as young as five. Some people, including myself, believe that most of the time, parents enter their little girls in beauty pageants more for themselves than for the girl 's own experience. For example, In the show …show more content…
In the beginning, her mom would make the costumes because she couldn 't afford to buy them, but eventually she took to borrowing money from relatives to pay for it all. "There were many nights where I had nothing to eat but Pepperidge Farms gingerbread cookies because all of the money went towards the pageants," says Rose. "To this day, she sends those cookies to me because she thinks I like them, but they just generate bad memories."