Pageants for little girls are more common for sure but there are those for little boys as well.
[source = http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/2000/06.08/beauty.html]
Strange.
From her researcher’s view, Levey got a good idea of why people do and don’t participate [in child pageants]. When some of the children lost baby teeth that had not been replaced by pageant time, their parents fit them with false teeth.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," she comments.
This kinda takes away from the mother's comment later in your text where she says she enters her child in beauty contests so that she will learn how to "be herself". How can she be herself when she's possibly wearing pageant gowns, hairpieces, adult makeup, false teeth and 'costumes'?!?!
Utterly bizarre.
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. "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."
Wonder how this explains JonBenet Ramsey? Child from an extremely wealthy family.
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.
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."
Let's just say enrolling your child in Debate classes will accomplish the same thing, but instead of having one's child obsessed with costumes and glamour makeup, hairpieces and talent shows, they actually learn analytical thinking, the art of rhetoric, poise, coolness under pressure, competiveness and it could help them get into Ivy League schools if they excel.