Author's Note: This is my last piece and it is a research piece, I didn't want to just ramble on with facts about how beauty pageants aren't good for children, so I spiced it up a bit. I wrote this piece in the perspective of a 6 year old who takes part in pageants and how it affects her life. I wanted to meet my goal of receiving a 9/10 in all areas of organization. I also wanted to meet my goal of using dialogue properly in an essay. I hope you enjoy my research paper about children and beauty pageants.
As I see my competitors walk on stage I can't help but think to myself: "they are extremely ugly compared to me, nobody can be as beautiful as me! I have everything, a fake tan, caked-on makeup, fake teeth, a glitzy dress and hair that is as hard as a rock! I'm definitely going to win!" After I placed second in the pageant, I never knew what my future would hold. I never knew that all this beauty pageant stuff would cause me psychological problems and self esteem issues for the rest of my life. Nor would I have ever believed that I would end up with an eating disorder by the age of 11!
40% of girls WILL have psychological problems, and I never thought that I would be in that 40%. By the time I turn 20, I will suffer from the stress and anxiety of feeling that I ALWAYS had to be perfect. I never realized what could happen to me, and it's all because my mother forced me into doing pageants since I was 3 years old. I bet 60% of the girls that compete in beauty pageants aren't happy. That would be me! My mom puts so much pressure on me to look perfect and to perform flawlessly. I feel like the ground is crumbling underneath my feet and I would soon go down as the fast as the earth beneath me.
Today is the day I will compete for the biggest title and most money, $100,000, no wonder kids my age, or any girl in pageants will have psychological problems and stress issues. I was not looking forward competing in this pageant today at all. I felt like I wanted to just curl up in a ball and cry, I could tell my self esteem was running on empty. I have never actually won a grand prize, no wonder I felt like this. Sure, I may earn a college scholarship, communicate well, develop personally, and be outgoing, but I think they are terrible! "Mommy", I mumbled. "Yes darling?", she replied. I was so scared to tell her that I didn't want to compete in pageants anymore. "Iwanttostopdoingpageants,Ihatethemtheyareruiningmylife!" I purposely said that really fast because a part of me wanted to tell her and a part of me was scared to see her reaction, I even thought she might scream at me or worse smack me. "I didn't catch that love. Could you repeat what you said? Something about pageants?" I was going to reply slower but she interrupted me, "Oh my gosh! Look at the time we are going to be late!" I was not prepared for this. We walked down to line up and I looked at all of the girls I will be competing with, and I thought to myself, all these girls are beautiful, I'm so ugly I should just put a paper bag over my head.
After the pageant we went home, I did so bad I didn't even place, but my mom said she would keep taking me to pageants until I fulfilled all that she accomplished when she was in pageants. On my way home, I started feeling a rumbling sensation in my stomach, I was extremely hungry, the last time I ate was at 5:30 in the morning, it was now 3:00 o'clock in the afternoon! My mom says I'm only supposed to have 700 calories a day, most of it being energy drinks and pixie stix to supposedly "keep my energy up", if I only keep eating 700 calories I'm going to have a serious eating disorder! After thinking about that for a minute I took my phone and searched eating disorders, yes I'm only 6 and I have a phone. Anyways when I searched eating disorders it came up with this startling fact: 80% of 10-year-old girls in the U.S. report they have been on a diet, according to a recent study. I'm not even 10 years old and I’m not getting the right amount of nutrition I need to grow up healthy! Little did I know I would be anorexic and in the hospital by the time I am 11, but don't worry I'll become healthier in my later teen years!
If I only knew that competing in beauty pageants at such a young age would cause me psychological problems, self esteem issues, and an eating disorder before I was even a teenager, I would have taken up sewing! When I grow up and have a daughter of my own, I will never force her into doing something she doesn't want to do, especially pageants! Even if she wanted to do pageants, I would never make her stress about being "perfect" and endure what I have endured. Even Hannah Montana wrote a song called "Nobody's Perfect", and it's true. Nobody is perfect!
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