If you have a child and have thought about entering him or her in pageants, you might be wondering about the best age to begin competing. From my experience with glitz pageants, natural pageants, and everything in between, I think a lot depends on the individual child and on the type of pageant. For example, natural pageants aren’t nearly as demanding, and neither are face pageants. Neither of these types of pageants requires as much fuss and preparation as glitz pageants do.
Unless your daughter is very young, she’ll be expected to wear makeup, pageant hair, and a glitz pageant dress in high-glitz pageants. She’ll also need to be tanned, and she might need to wear a flipper, too. A flipper is a mouthpiece that gives the appearance of perfect teeth. For many small kids, sitting still for a hair and makeup session is very uncomfortable, and some little girls hate wearing glitz dresses, too. Pageant hair and makeup are hard enough to do correctly with a small child who’s willing to cooperate, and with an uncooperative child, it’s all but impossible to get a great look. Even if the perfect pageant look is achieved, the child can easily “mess it up” before it’s her turn to walk on stage.
Another reason glitz pageants are more demanding is because of the beauty walk. Children are expected to “perform” on stage. Even small children are expected to wave, blow kisses, smile, etc. if the child isn’t ready to walk in front of strangers, she’s not going to do well.
Some little girls love everything about glitz pageants, so they don’t mind all the fussing over them. In fact, some of them love it! If you’re not sure how your daughter will handle all the preparations necessary for competing in glitz pageants, I strongly suggest trying a few natural pageants first. You might want to move up to low-glitz pageants next, then to medium-glitz pageants. If your daughter is handling these well and enjoying them, try a high-glitz pageant.
