Pageants at a young age just isn't a great idea. The girls are stuffed into frou-frou dresses and doused with make-up and spray tans. Things they don't need, things that will eventually degrade self worth as a result of feeling they need these things to measure up to the other girls. Children learn by comparing. Teaching them to compare in a shallow, appearance-centered way will inevitably make them shallow, as well.

I do know that there are au naturale pageants, but I still stand by my statement of comparison.

There is also a certain amount of undue pampering provided by parents who do these things, who also tend to live vicariously through their children. The lack of proper parenting leads to the tantrums shown on shows like Toddlers and Tiaras. Overall, these grossly inhuman displays of children like dogs at a show before they have the ability to make an informed decision about their lives is sickening, and because the girls often start at such a young age, all they know is the pageantry. Children will accept whatever they grow up with as normal and okay. They cannot gain further perspective until exposed to other lifestyles and ideals at an advanced age in which they are mentally developed enough to comprehend the difference fully.

For a girl to pick it at an age where they know what's happening is less distasteful. But this girl is not going to turn out as conscientious or deep as we would hope if this is all her life is centered around. Perhaps not psychologically damaged, just starved. Unfulfilled.