Tantrums and Tiaras

Remember when you were six and went to New York fashion week and threw an almighty tantrum because you couldn’t get your teeth whitened? No? Me neither, because we aren’t Eden Wood and the star of a reality TV show about Middle America beauty pageants.

The mini model went into meltdown this week after the she was told she couldn’t try Glo brilliant teeth whitening kit because she didn’t have ‘her big girl teeth’.

While the rest of us would plead guilty to throwing tantrums on a similar scale at her age, they were more than likely because we weren’t tall enough to get on the ladybird ride at Redcastle amusements, or because the hair on our 'Girl’s World' head got all tangled, not because we wanted our gnashers to be visible from the moon.

Eden from Arkansas has ‘retired’ from the US beauty pageant scene after winning over 300 trophies and the pint sized premadonna has now set her sights on world domination. She’s currently cutting her (milk) teeth in the fashion industry and spends her time doing fun childhood things like attending catwalk shows with her mum and her agent (!)
 
Her not remotely mental mother Micki Wood says she hopes to build an 'Eden empire' because she wants to become rich and famous through her child, ahem, because that is ‘the child’s destiny’.  
Mother of the year Micki said the empire will include music, merchandise and an action figure. An action figure? Of a six year old beauty queen? What will her special powers be, grinning her enemies into submission?  

Now I have to tread carefully here for fear that a gang of Derry Feis mums picket the newsroom and threaten to have their daughters execute a four hand heavy jig on my car bonnet.
The Derry feis is an institution and was the first stepping stone to stardom for many North West singers, dancers and actors. There’s a strong Irish dancing community in Derry alone and the dedication and time they put in has to be applauded.

In that sense it is a million miles away from the looks orientated childhood robbing wrongness of a beauty pageant but the wigs, the tan and the makeup is getting more extreme every year and is in some cases a hair spray can short of pageant like behaviour.

I’m all for nurturing a child’s interests and talents but cashing in on their looks, making them aware of their flaws and plunging them into the beauty industry, a world so unforgiving that grown women struggle to deal with let alone someone who still has to sleep with the light on is anything but pretty