Child Beauty Pageant, United States

Besides travel and lodging expenses, pageants require an entry fee that usually ranges from fifty to several hundred dollars, depending on the type competition being entered. Makeup and hair is typically done by a pressional makeup artist. Spray tans and other accessories also must be paid for, as well as clothing and outfits. Dresses can cost anywhere from $200 to $6000, depending on the designer and the amount adornment on the garment. Some parents hire pageant coaches to teach their child pressionally choreographed routines. There have been cases families going into debt or losing their homes because overextending family resources to cover the costs that the pageants required. Contestants may sell sponsor tickets and get ads for ad books to help with the cost competing. Sponsor tickets range in price from $1 to $10 and are entered in raffle drawings for cash prizes. It is estimated that the attire and props as they relate to costs putting a child through a beauty pageant can range from $300 and upward $5000 depending on the level competition.
Reasons
The most cited reason parents give for putting their children into beauty pageants is to boost their child’s self-esteem, as well as teach poise, public speaking skills, tact, and confidence. Some parents who have children with birth defects say they enter them into beauty contests not in hopes winning, but to ensure that their child knows that they are beautiful. There is, however, no scientific evidence that supports these claims.