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This Glitz Retouching service may include some or all of the followings:

Skin Smoothing/Softening
Blemish Removal
Adding Blush
Eyebrows Thickening
Adding of Makeup and/or Tan
Stray Hairs Removal
Adding Eyelashes
Eye and/or Eye-Colour Enhancement
Tooth Whitening
Touch of Shine On Lips
Adding Sparkle/Glitter
Color Correction or Enhancement
Blurring/Changing/Removal of Background
Adding Frame or Border
Cropping

Black & White, Sepia, Chocolate, or Selective Color Sharpening at request.

child beauty pageant retouching photos

"It gives her confidence"

Gaining poise and confidence is cited most often by parents as the reason for putting their child into these contests. "She learns skills such as going out in a crowd, not to be shy, and to be herself while people are watching and focusing on her," one mother noted.

"You see this a lot among people on the lower-income and education scales," Levey comments. "They want their kids to learn skills that are needed to move up the social scale."

One mother put it this way: "I want my child to be aware that there’s always going to be somebody better than her. It’s a hard thing to learn – it was for me – and I want her to start early."

Price

It’s not cheap to show off your child’s beauty.

Parents typically spend between $100-$200 on pageant clothing, although some pay as much as $1,000 for a gown.

Pageant fees cost another $100-$200 per contest, and the 41 mothers who Levey interviewed competed in an average of five pageants during the past year.

In addition, those with higher incomes may hire someone to do the child’s hair, or a pageant coach to give their child an extra advantage.

False Teeth and Barbie

Why people do and don’t participate ?

When some of the children lost baby teeth that had not been replaced by pageant time, their parents fit them with false teeth.

When a girl’s hair was too short to curl like Barbie’s, fake additions were fitted.

"Things like this showed me that these are not just contests to judge natural beauty".

The whys and woes of beauty pageants

They wore the latest colors of lipstick and matching eyeliner. Some had fake hair and even fake teeth. They pranced on stage in sequined gowns and rhinestone-studded jeans.

That’s the way Hilary Levey ’02 describes a scene at one of the beauty pageants she studies. "You have to wonder if that kind of thing is right," Levey commented. "I’m interested in understanding why people behave that way; so instead of just passing judgement, I decided to study it objectively. With the death of JonBenet Ramsey, there’s been a barrage of interest in beauty pageants but no sociological studies."

Levey applied for a grant from the Harvard College Research Program, which allows undergraduate students to design and carry out their own research rather than assisting a professor. She received $850 and, after being refused access to a couple of the events, headed off to pageants in Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire where girls, and some boys, between ages 2 and 6 competed against each other. Academia was pleased enough with the result to give her a spot on the podium at the national convention of the American Sociological Association in August.

Children and Beauty Pageants

Beauty pageants became part of the American society in the 1920's. Child beauty pageants began in the 1960's.

Beauty pageants originated as a marketing tool in 1921 by an Atlantic City hotel owner who wanted the city's tourists to remain in town longer. A local news reporter started the infamous term, still used today by saying, "let´s call her 'Miss America'!" Pageants were introduced into the lives of Americans and became a major event, although they were discontinued from 1929-1932 due to the Great Depression.

Beauty pageants originated as a marketing tool in 1921 by an Atlantic City hotel owner who wanted the city's tourists to remain in town longer. A local news reporter started the infamous term, still used today by saying, "let´s call her 'Miss America'!" Pageants were introduced into the lives of Americans and became a major event, although they were discontinued from 1929-1932 due to the Great Depression.

Individual beauty pageants set their own guidelines for their participants, since they are exempt from the federal child labor laws (Fair Labor standards Act, 1938). Child pageant contestants are not considered to be "working" children although they receive money and prizes for their performances and practice for hours per week to achieve those goals.