Naturally, young girls love to dress up as their mothers and wear their makeup, clothes and heels. Children's imagination and their propensity to pretend characterize childhood. However, in the world of pageantry, there is a blur between the imagination of little girls and the transformation into a false “character”. Although some parents believe that beauty pageants provide healthy competition for children, beauty pageants exploit young girls by glamorizing perfection, unrealistically portraying them as "Barbies," and creating a superficial expectation in which self-esteem is linked to attractiveness. Some people believe that beauty pageants hinder personal growth and increase self-hatred. During beauty pageants, children are asked to “cover” themselves with lots of makeup and wear some sort of facade. This facade eats away at a young girl's self-esteem, as she believes she must transform herself into an ideal character able to please a set of judges based on outfit, personality, and appearance ("Child") ). If a young girl is constantly surrounded by false ideologies and superficial aspects of pageantry, she will let the perceptions of others define who she is. Therefore, critics claim that beauty pageants teach young girls to focus only on developing their appearance ("Child"). Young girls begin to believe that their self-esteem is measured by external attributes. Additionally, the vicious cycle of putting on a facade begins to harm young girls' self-esteem and emotional state. Children's regalia consists of glamorous dresses, puffy hairstyles and makeup, giving girls the impression that beauty is based solely on appearance. Beauty pageants inherently represent shallow and superficial ideals that persist in society. Once...... middle of paper...... Sherry. “The Strange World of JonBenet.” Newsweek 129.3 (1997): 42. MasterFILE completed. Internet. March 17, 2014.Anderson, Susan. Wallace, Amy. “Glamour girls.” Los Angeles Magazine 54.10 (2009): 148. MasterFILE completed. Internet. February 26, 2014. “Children's Beauty Pageant.” Problems and controversies. Facts On File News Services, January 11, 2010. Web February 24, 2014. http://www.2facts.com/article/i500030.Estes, Clarissa Pinkola. “Child exploitation in beauty pageants, or not? Moderate Voice (2011): 4. Points of View Reference Center. Internet. March 7, 2014. Kincaid, James R. “Children's Beauty Pageants Reflect the Culture's Sexualization of Children.” » Beauty contest. Ed. Christmas Merino. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2010. At issue. Rep. Excerpt from “Little Miss Sunshine: America’s Obsession with JonBenet Ramsey.” Slate. 2006. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Internet. February 25. 2014.