Work Cited

Works Cited

" Beauty Pageant Statistics | Statistic Brain." Statistic Brain | Numbers  |  Percentages  |  Financials  |  Rankings | Statistic Brain. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 May 2013. <http://www.statisticbrain.com/beauty-pageant-statistics/>.

Calvert, Roz. "The Impacts of Child Beauty Pageants on Children | eHow." eHow | How to Videos, Articles & More - Discover the expert in you.. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 May 2013. <http://www.ehow.com/info_8425656_impacts-child-beauty-pageants-children.html>.

"Child Beauty Pageants: What Are We Teaching Our Girls? | Psychology Today." Psychology Today: Health, Help, Happiness + Find a Therapist. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2013. <http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/food-thought/201108/child-beauty-pageants-what-are-we-teaching-our-girls>.

Collins, Jada. "Instagram Beauty Pageants | Teen Girls Self-Esteem | Toddlers & Tiaras | Tips for Parents | Total Life Counseling for Children, Teens, Adolescents and Adults in Orlando Winter Park Clermont Lake Mary and Central Florida." Total Life Counseling Services Orlando and Central Florida. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2013. <http://www.totallifecounseling.com/2013/04/instagram-beauty-pageants-teen-girls-self-esteem-toddlers-tiaras-tips-for-parents/>.

Morgan, Mandy. "Toddlers and Tears: The sexualization of young girls | Deseret News." Salt Lake City and Utah Breaking news, sports, entertainment and news headlines - Deseret News. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2013. <http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865567072/Toddlers-and-Tears-The-sexualization-of-young-girls.html?pg=all>.

Post, Global . "How Do Child Beauty Pageants Affect a Child's Development?." How Do Child Beauty Pageants Affect a Child's Development?. N.p., 13 Feb. 2013. Web. 8 May 2013. <everydaylife.globalpost.com/child-beauty-pageants-affect-childs-development-3088.html >.

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"Beauty Pageants and Children: It’s Not Always Pretty." GoodTherapy.org - Therapy, Find a Therapist or Marriage Counselor. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2013. <http://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/beauty-pageant-children-effects-1115127>.

"The Safety Report » Beauty Pageants: Are Parents Bullying Their Children – By Accident?." The Safety Report . N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2013. <http://thesafetyreport.com/2013/02/beauty-pageants-are-parents-bullying-their-children-by-accident/>.

"Year 9 Persuasive SAC Beauty Pageants." Year 9 Persuasive SAC Beauty Pageants. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 May 2013. <https://sites.google.com/site/9bericarmstrong/year-9-persuasive-sac---beauty-pageants>.

Nobody's Perfect

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!

The Fighter's

Albert Einstein would be a great "fighter" because he was a scientist and came up with the formula E=Mc^2. The E stands for energy, the M stands for mass, c is the speed of light squared. He must've created this to defeat "The Black Thing." Another thing he discovered was that time is relevant, while light is constant. An example of that was if you wanted to travel to the nearest star Alpha Centauri it would take 5.7 earth years, however they would only age 3.8 years and return at a younger age than expected. You experience time difference the closer you are to the speed of light. This would've helped fight "The Black Thing" because it's like tessering, when they travel to different planets they don't age and when they get back they will be "younger", the same age as they were when they left. 

Another person in society that would be good for this job would be Katniss from the Hunger Games. Even though she is a fictional character she is strong willed. She would be ready to fight The Black Thing. She would be like one of the stars that give there life to defeat it.

Jesus Take The Wheel

Author's Note: I did this point of view piece on a song, Jesus Take the Wheel, by Carrie Underwood. I wanted to write about this song because it has a lot of meaning to it. I also thought it would be neat to write the alternate point of view through Jesus' eyes. 

Imagine yourself driving home on Christmas Eve on a highway. The road is like a thin, black sheet of glass and the winds are fierce. You have so many thoughts going through your head about everything that has gone on in the past year, and you realize you are going way too fast for the icy conditions. This scenario is what you might picture while listening to the song “Jesus Take the Wheel”, by Carrie Underwood. While Underwood sings the song, she tells her listeners a story. She paints a picture in your mind of woman driving home on a cold, blizzard night “with her baby in the back seat” to visit her parents for Christmas. While this song is written and sung mostly in third person with Carrie Underwood telling this story from her point of view, the song switches during the chorus, from third person to first person and the listener feels the woman’s terror of spinning out of control in her car on the black ice.

In the song you hear the lyric “Going home to see her Mama and her Daddy with the baby in the back seat. Fifty miles to go and she was running low on faith and gasoline. It’d been a long hard year”. This lyric leads the listener to believe that the woman is sad and she wants to give up because of the difficulties that she has experienced in the past year. Which leads us into another quote from the song. “She had a lot on her mind and she didn’t pay attention, she was going way to fast, before she knew it she was spinning on a thin black sheet of glass, she saw both lives flash before her eyes.” This lyric from the song is so powerful.  It gives you the feeling that at the last second she snapped out of her daze, and she realized that her and her baby might die. Her faith in Jesus took over during this time of helplessness, and she came to the conclusion that her life would not turn around without his help.

The chorus that is repeated throughout the song: “Jesus take the wheel, take it from my hands, I can’t do this on my own, I’m letting go, so give me one more chance, save me from this road I’m on, Jesus take the wheel” is so powerful! The woman wants a second chance and unconditionally asks Jesus for help. It is also a very powerful quote because in the next verse it says: “And the car came to a stop, she saw that baby in the back seat sleeping like a rock, for the first time in a long time she bowed her head to pray, she said I’m sorry for the way I’ve been living my life.” This lyric is meaningful to her because she wants to thank Jesus that they both escaped a tragedy due to her faith and belief in the higher power. She wants to create a better her life for her and the baby and she realizes that it won’t happen without her faith in Jesus.

Jesus’ Point of View:

As I listened to her thoughts, her faith in me diminished: “He is such a jerk, I hate him! I can’t believe he left me by myself to raise our beautiful child!” “Now, I am a single mom without a job heading home for the holidays.” I couldn’t help but wonder why she’s lost faith in me this past year. No prayers. No belief that it can get better. Before I knew it, I heard a cry for help.  I saw a woman so terrified and so lonely. Her hands let go of the wheel, and I heard hear scream my name and plead with me to take the wheel and save them. I had to help her, it wasn’t her time to die, nor was it the newborn baby’s time to die. This was a real cry for help and I never disappoint. As they were about to crash I swerved the car onto the shoulder of the road. I heard her speak to me. She prayed. That was something she had not done in a long time. She stated that she was going to change her life, and now she has made me proud. Never lose faith in me. I am here for you…to guide you, to protect you.  

The Maze Runner (point of view)

Author's Note: This is a piece I wrote for point of view and how it might affect the reader's interpretation of the story if the point of view was in someone else's perspective. This point of view piece was written on the book The Maze Runner. 


The book The Maze Runner is written in first-person, Thomas' point of view. This affects the reader because when you read the book it produces a lot of imagery. If this book was written in third-person it wouldn't be as adrenaline rushing as it is in first-person, especially when Thomas goes through "the maze." The other way the point of view would be affected would be if the book was written from Teresas' point of view, being the only girl in the "glade", while being in a coma for part of the book. I think if it was written in Teresas' point of view it wouldn't have been as thrilling as a book. The book would also be interpreted in a different way than the original way, in Thomas' point of view.

A Clean, Well- Lighted Place

How does Hemingway use light and dark as symbols? How do the shadows fit in?

He uses dark to symbolize that the man is sad and depressed, that is why he sat in the shadow of the tree. 

He uses light to represent happiness and the waiters were in the light of the cafe and they weren't depressed, and they didn't want to commit suicide. 

The shadows fit in because because the old man that was drinking was sad and depressed and tried to commit suicide so he sat in the shadow of the tree.

Analysis of film and story.

In the film the man sat in the light of the café and he didn’t seem as sad/ depressed, he just looked drunk. In the story we read the old man sat in the shadow of the tree.  Also when I read the story I thought of the older bartender older and not in his 30’s, but I imagined the younger bartender about the same age as in the film.

The bartenders were also Irish or Scottish so they cut out a part in the film, in my opinion was important. Another thing with the video was that the screen shots were really lengthy, so it became a little boring while watching it. I honestly think the story produced more imagery than what was in the film.

Symbolism In Hunger (text analysis)

Author's Note: This is my text analysis piece, it is not an essay. I wrote about 3 symbols in the Hunger Games. The first paragraph and third paragraph relate to something in real life. 

In the book the Hunger Games, there are many different objects that the author uses to represent symbolism. For example the author uses 13 districts and each one represents something.  District 12, for example, is a coal mining community; District 11 is primarily agriculture and District 13 is the rebel region that the capitol obliterated during the “Dark Days,” to remind everyone that everyone in Panem must obey the power and rule of the Capitol. These 13 districts can be compared to the original 13 colonies in North America:  Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Virginia.  Similarly, these colonies were under the rule of the British Empire.

Another symbol that the author uses in the story is the mockingjay pin, worn by Katniss throughout the Hunger Games. This pin represents the free spirit Katniss portrays just like a Mockingjay. These birds are also a symbol of resistance and rebellion in the book.  Katniss gave the pin to her sister, Prim, to keep her safe hoping she would not get chosen to be part of the Hunger Games. When Prim was chosen to partake in the games, Katniss offered to take Prim’s place as a tribute and Prim returned the pin to her and whispered in her ear, “to keep you safe,” she said. This meant a lot to Katniss because she wanted to win for her sister, Prim.

The last symbol I found was “the double suicide.” Katniss realized that the only way she and Peeta may have a chance of both coming out alive, is to take the whole star-crossed lovers bit to its logical conclusion: tragedy. Like the doomed teenagers Romeo and Juliet, Peeta and Katniss decided not to fight each other to see who will win the Games, but instead to deny the Gamemakers any winner at all by downing some poisonous berries in a double suicide attempt. This symbol shows Katniss is a rebel and courageous, she will do anything to win with Peeta, and win for her sister.