“To all the girls that think you’re fat because you’re not a size zero, you’re the beautiful one, it’s society who’s ugly.” -Marilyn Monroe. Did you know that 6% of girls who participated in beauty pageants suffer from depression, and around 2.5 million girls participate in beauty pageants in the U.S.A each year? This means that around 1.5 million girls in beauty pageants suffer from depression. Body image is a troubling topic for many girls and beauty pageants encourage girls that beauty is only skin deep. Child beauty pageants should be banned because they steal young girls’ childhoods, give children the wrong impression on appearance, and teach children superficial values. First of all, child beauty pageants steal little girls’ childhoods. Many children are forced into doing these pageants. These children have to endure the process of making them “pretty.” This means waxing, spray tans, wigs, extensions, fake teeth, tons of makeup, and revealing outfits. As a result, these …show more content…
These pageants show children that looks are the most important part of a person. Martina M. Cartwright states that, “many experts agree that participation in activities that focus on physical appearance at an early age an influence teen and/or adult self-esteem body image and self-worth. Also, there was a study in 2005. This study was done by Anna L. Wonderlich, Diann M. Ackard, and Judith B. Henderson. They used 11 women who had participated in beauty pageants and 11 who had not. The results were shocking. Those who participated in beauty pageants scored higher on the bulimia test, the body dissatisfaction subscale, and the depression scale. Those who participated in beauty pageants scored lower on the eating disorder test and the self-esteem scale. Also, those who participated in beauty pageants also thought that their figure was larger than those who did not participate in beauty pageants(Ackard et al.