last month, national magazines and TV shows have run photographs and videotapes of the bleached-blonde woman-child vamping across stages in showgirl costumes and heavy makeup.

There are thousands of children like JonBenet. Charles Dunn, publisher of Pageantry magazine, estimates that, every year, beauty pageants show off 100,000 children under the age of 12. It's a subculture of bleached hair, blue contact lenses and false eyelashes. Little girls

sashay in sequined gowns and swimsuits, sometimes adding a touch of striptease by

removing wraparound skirts.

Parents pay entry fees of up to $500 and buy thousand-dollar gowns so their girls can

compete for 10-inch crowns, 6-foot trophies and $10,000 savings bonds. Some of the

children travel with an entourage of makeup artists, hairdressers and talent coaches.

It pays to start young. Jo-Ann Guerin, director of All Star Kids U.S.A. Pageants, once

your hair has to be a certain way. In girls particularly, this can unleash a whole complex of

America crown, a spiked affair that looked like the Statue of Liberty headdress. Gorman captured the title wearing a modest

Bathing suit styles changed drastically through the 1920s. The clumsy Victorian-style bathing costumes worn by Gorman and

"I've never said that this is the greatest thing in the world for your child," says Guerin,

Bathing suit styles changed drastically through the 1920s. The clumsy Victorian-style bathing costumes worn by Gorman and

Babies too young to walk are paraded down pageant runways, their mothers holding the

her colleagues evolved into form-fitting outfits. Stockings, however, were still routine attire. Some say these unlined bathing

If parents keep pageantry from consuming a child's life, it can be a positive experience,

their girls when they lose."

state and national pageants, the costs escalate.

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Statue Liberty, Miss America, Charles Dunn, USA Pageants, Northwestern University, Garden Steel, Jo Walker, Star Kids, Boulder Colo, Noreen Williams, miss america, bathing suits, bathing costumes, bathing suits swimsuits, posed publicity shots, publicity shots, posed publicity, suit contestants, contestants posed, skimpy bathing, shots skimpy, publicity shots skimpy, shots skimpy bathing, star kids, skimpy bathing suits,
Approximate Word count = 975
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)