How Child Beauty Pageants Ruin Self Image of Younger Population

Self image is a big problem today, especially with social media being such a big part of our lives. Beauty pageants are a big part of this problem and is making it even worse. Beauty pageants can cause a lot of mental problems. It must be hard on a seven-year-old to be constantly judged only based on her looks. Countless of experts agree that participation of children in activities that focus mainly on physical appearance can have a great impact on a teen or an adult body image and self-esteem.

In these contests the young girls are made up like Barbie dolls. Clearly, natural beauty is not enough to win a beauty pageant. They need to go through a massive makeover in order to meet the judges’ requirements of beauty and looks. The message the children get from the judges is that in order to be liked, they need to look beautiful. It is very interesting to think about why a parent would want to send their child to a competition like this.

These contests have often little to do with the children and much more to do with satisfying the mother. Many psychologists and social workers believe that many mothers sign their daughters up for beauty pageants because of their own low self-esteem or use it as a way to compensate their perceived lack of attention and admiration in their lives.

The famous TV show Toddlers and Tiaras is a great example where we can see that mothers are more into the pageants than their children who are competing. The mothers experience pride and joy through their child’s achievements. This is also very common with parents who are failed athlete superstars. And as a result, many girls feel like they have let their parents down by losing. But this can also cause many other problems in a child’s life. The constant beauty admiration can cause unrealistic expectations to be pretty, thin and physically beautiful. If a child is constantly winning a competition that is mainly based on her looks, she is more likely to be struggling with psychological problems later in life.

Issues with self-identity in her teens are very common after competing in beauty pageants. Girls often struggle with all kinds of problems all from image obsession to eating disorders. Eating disorders, depression, anxiety and bodydissatisfaction are growing problems in our society and beauty pageants are making these problems even worse. The message girls get from adults is that a woman’s worth is based primarily on her looks.. This is a total misconception that needs to be corrected(þarf að leiðrétta þetta). Girls keep driving towards the unattainable goal of physical perfection. Thinking you need to be pretty, thin or beautiful physically to be accepted by the world is delusional.