As I mentioned in my previous post, I spent my childhood, off and on going to beauty pageants around the South. I competed in my first beauty pageant when I was a five year old kindergartener. The pageant was actually held at my elementary school and was part of a fundraiser for my Campfire Girls group. (It’s something like Girl Scouts or Girl Guides)
And technically, the school pageant is what is commonly known in the pageant world as a “natural” pageant. There were no elaborate hairdos or heavy make up or spray tans. Well there couldn’t be any tans because except for one Hispanic child, all the other girls were Black.
It was a fun experience, and I placed third. I enjoyed myself and because I did enjoy myself, my mother started looking around and trying to find more pageants for me to participate in.
And it really didn’t take long before my mother had found another one in a nearby town.
Now you must understand, pageants, and in particular, child beauty pageants have come a long way to where they are now.
When I started competing in 1991, no one even knew the name JonBenet Ramsey, and the look of a child competing in the “glitz” of the day, was nothing compared to what it is now.
Sure there were fancy dresses, but not many were custom made, at least with the girls I competed with. Most dresses came from the mall or were special ordered from catalogues.
Now dresses can go for at least 500 dollars and up and you ain’t even trying if your dress isn’t custom made.
I remember back as a child, my mom not really wanting to put make up on me, but going along with it because a dozen other moms backstage were doing it.
Even the make up is different now. Back then, I only wore powder, blush, mascara, eye shadow, liner and lipstick. I had my real hair, and my real nails and skin color and wore a sixty dollar dress mom got from Sears.
Now you can’t dream of competing without hair pieces, acrylic nails--on children--tons more make up and spray tans.
And I can say that yes, I have seen Black children getting spray tans. I haven’t done it myself, nor would I ever want it, but I have seen it.
But I have to admit, that over the years, as I’ve continued going to pageants, mostly in my home state of Texas, but I sometimes travel to Louisiana, I’ve seen the prizes and rewards get better.
I competed in only a handful of contests in my first year of pageants. And from the first pageant, I got a ribbon, and I didn’t really win until about my sixth or seventh pageant.
When I won first place, I got a little teddy bear and a very small crown that was maybe an inch and a half high. But granted, the most that had been spent on entrance fees was probably 50 dollars at the most.
Pageants have albeit grown more expensive, but when a person stops and looks they see that the payoffs are worth it. Some pageants give out cars and cruises and trips to places like Disneyworld and Las Vegas. Not to mention crowns as big as 20 inches high.
Now entrance fees for good pageants range from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars for a big nationals pageant.
The most that my mother ever paid for me to compete was a big pageant, out of state in Louisiana, which had come the summer I was thirteen. My mother had put in extra hours the entire winter before hand to cover the 500 dollar entrance fee. But it was worth it because at the end of the weekend, I was driving home with a four foot tall trophy and the second highest title in my age division and a very proud and pleased mother behind the wheel of the car. My boyfriend who helps pay for pageants now because he enjoys watching me perform, tops out a 500 dollar fee. We aren’t rich, far from it, but we do like other pageant people, save up and scrimp until we can afford to go.
Some people work seconds jobs solely to do pageants.
I performed in my last pageant three years ago, and I walked away with the top title and it was worth all the work that went into it.
I don’t get to go to pageants as much as I used to--I used to hit at least two pageants a month, or more at my peak--but I find my way to one every so often.
And I plan to continue doing pageants until I figure I’m too old for them. Just for the record, there are some pageants that accept women well into their fifties and OLDER.
Also, one day I hope to have a little girl of my own and if she is interested, I’ll do pageants with her.
I love pageants, I love the glitz and glamour they allow me to have for a day and really, what woman or girl doesn’t want to feel and look like a princess, even for a little while?
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