Beauty Pageants for Kids: Flap Flares Anew

Child beauty pageants are fun, glamorous -- and controversial. The reality show "Little Miss Perfect" on WE-TV network is back for a second season to give viewers a behind-the-scenes look at a world of pomp, circumstance, and competitions between the girls -- and their stage moms, alike.

But are the pageants hurting the kids' self-image?

"Little Miss Perfect" pageant director Michael Galanes told Early Show" co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez the pageants are for kids who really want to be there.

He said, "They're excited, they've worked hard with their moms and dads and coaches. They're learning life lessons they couldn't have learned at home or in the classroom. So the pageants are alive and well. WE-TV has provided this very, very unbiased documentary, and they let the viewer decide if the pageants are right for them."

But what about the moms - is this a way for them to live vicariously through their daughters' success?

Irina Dolinsky, of Orlando, is a pageant mom featured on "Little Miss Perfect." She said she's seen girls who really want to participate in the pageants.

"I can't speak, obviously, for all the moms, but moms that I've met, I've met very driven little girls and they want to participate in pageant," Dolinsky said. "I know (with my daughter), it's one of the activities, fun activities that they do. When they're little, it's just playing princess, dressing up, playing makeup. ... And when they grow up, a little bit for older girls, you often see that they learn good sportsmanship, they learn how to meet new friends … and feel comfortable in front of big audiences."

But do kids get tired of pageants?

Dolinsky's 6-year-old daughter, Jayne, when asked if she gets tired of the schedule, said, "Well, not exactly, because I like to just show myself up on stage, and I never get tired. I want to do it every day and all again."
And if she wanted to stop, Jayne said she wouldn't tell her mother she wanted to stop. She said she would "just keep trying."

Irina added the pageants shouldn't be stressful or burdensome for kids.
She said, "They try hard, and they then apply it to their school projects and then to their careers. … As long as they're having fun."
Galanes said he's seen his first contestants come back with their children to compete.

He said, "I'm humbled when they bring their daughter to compete because they had fond memories of competing, and now they want their daughter to experience the same."