When deciding to enter your child into beauty pageants there are many things to consider. Probably the most important thing to ask yourself is the question of "Why"?  Why have you made a decision to enter your child into the pageant? Is it the potential winnings that you are after? Do you want her/him to have exposure for possible modeling contracts?

 Consider all the reasons for your interest in entering pageants and then go online and research local pageants in your area. If you have the name of a specific company be sure to google their name and do as much research on them as possible. After googling, you may also want to try Youtube.com and search video's there. A lot of parents, grandparents, etc. film the pageant of their child and post it online. You can watch specific pageants or just pageants in general to get an overall idea of what you may be encountering on your own journey through pageantry. If you can find the specific company that is holding the pageant that you are looking into then be sure and read the comments on the videos as well since there may be a good bit of information about other people's opinions on that particular pageant.

 Another good thing to research is the legitimacy of the pageant. You can check the Better Business Bureau to see if they are a member and if there are any reports of bad conduct filed against them. Sometimes, pageant companies call themselves by different names in different states. You will want to do your research thoroughly as you can and find out if they go by different names.

 Sometimes a parent will receive an unsolicited letter in the mail telling them that their child is the "right age" for entering pageants and that they will be holding an information session. Do try to go to the session but be aware that most times the person holding the session will do all the talking and there will be a very small amount of time alloted for your questions. They will tell you about the pageant in general terms and explain about prizes that can be won at different levels of the pageant. This is where being informed can really help you. You need to understand the terms they use. One specific term is the word "Preliminary". Of course, we understand the meaning of that word but in the midst of all the excitement and talking it is very possible to get confused and forget that when they are talking about prizes and scholarships that they are usually referring to the National levels not the first initial preliminary rounds. If there is a phone number or website on the letter be sure and call the place and research it online to get as many answers as you need before diving in.

 At the information session it is customary for the young ladies and gentlemen to sit in an area designated just for them and have the parents or guardians in the same room but in a different seating area. The officials do hand out small pamphlet booklets that are supposed to give detailed information that they are going over in their speech, however, these get handed to the children- the contestants, not the parents.

 The letter you may have received sometimes informs you that an interview will take place and that the young entrant will need to take notes, bring a photo and be dressed properly. In my experience, I have noted that the "interview" is a tiny portion of the information session. The girls and boys go row by row to an adjoining room that has a few "judges" in it. They get called up to the table in that room and asked one or two questions. Such as, "What grade are you in?", "What is your favorite food?" and things like that. The process takes less than five minutes. 

 They inform you that you will be notified as to whether or not you were selected as a contestant and that you will receive a phone call that following week to be told of your eligibility.  They tell you it is based on the interview you just had and your overall appearance and general demeanor when you had the interview.  The Judges that are in that particular interview are the staff and past winners of the contest you are entering.

After you receive your call of your eligibility you receive a confirmation letter in the mail. You will also get three dates and times to keep in mind. One is the actual pageant day and the other is an interview time with the actual judges of the pageant. The final date is the soonest one coming up, it will be the date of the training class. More on that below.

Some other items of importance to consider are the costs involved with being a contestant. Do you have to pay entry fees? Can you submit your own photo for different parts of the competition? Are prizes awarded to everyone? Trophies, cash, scholarships ?  what are the different kinds of prizes?

Most pageant officials tell you there is no cost to you to enter the Pageant. That is a bit misleading because there is a cost associated with being a contestant in most pageants. The reason they tell you there is not a cost is because they use the words- "To you.".  What that means is that they expect you to go out and collect the money needed to enter and attend the events associated with the pageant by gathering sponsors.  They give you a very short time frame and expect half of the money at the first event scheduled as part of the Pageant Process.

 Usually, the first event is what is called a Modeling Training day or a training day or a practice day. This is another day of meeting and getting information about how the actual pageant is going to be. They talk about what is going to happen on stage and they show you once or twice how to walk and do some pivoting on a slippery floor. The contestants are usually seated and listening to this information and taking notes. There is not actually a time set aside for getting up and walking around and having one on one instruction. At the end of class, they send you home with a pamphlet with a diagram on it and tell you to practice it at home and to get the rest of your sponsorship monies in by interview date.

The Interview date is the day before the pageant, the local judges that the coordinators have gathered will meet one on one in a closed door interview with each contestant. If you do not have all your sponsorship monies in at this time you will get no interview.  You actually had to have all the money turned in at the training class date. Different phases of the competitions cost different amounts. Example : For a photogenic entry it costs approximately $150.00 more whether you enter your own photo or have one taken by them.

 At the interview you check in with the officials and wait your turn to go in to the judges. There will be approximately 5-20 judges present. You should look nice and professional and take nothing in with you. It is up to you whether you want to shake the judges hands or not. Just being yourself is the most important thing. A wide variety of questions are asked by each judge and of course the contestant is the only one allowed in the room. The parents can not be there to "coach" them.  After the interview, the child exits the room and usually they have to have some photo's taken (To be offered for sale  to you later on). Then you are free to leave and rest up before the next day which is the actual pageant .

For the pageant, you have to model casual wear , formal wear, possibly do your talent, and possibly do a swimsuit modeling but that is being more and more phased out. Most pageants now, specifically state that they are scholarship pageants and are based on personality first and foremost.

 So, some costs to consider are the costs of the clothing you will wear, you may need to purchase an interview outfit, a casual wear outfit, a formal gown, shoes, possibly make-up, possibly have a hairstylist or hair cut., etc.  These costs are also supposed to be paid by you gathering sponsors. 

The day of the pageant you go early in the morning and wear street clothes. Do not bring any items with you unless the officials specifically instruct you to do so. Most pageant rehearsals are hesistant to let you bring in any other items except what you wear in. You practice on the actual stage at that time. The contestants meet the Emcee and they get their "question" they will be asked as part of the pageant casual wear competition. They also have to vote right then on Miss Congeniality awards. I hope that the children got to meet one another at SOME point so they can at least have an idea of who to vote for at this time. Honestly, there was not many opportunities at any of the events to mingle and get to know one another. The contestant numbers are also assigned at this time so it is hard on Miss Congeniality to vote for anyone because if you did by chance get to meet someone that you wanted to vote for , you would have received their "Name" and when the voting takes place you find out that you have to write their "Number" down and you can not vote for yourself. On her first pageant, my child was hesitant to get up and walk around asking people their numbers as most of the children were, most of them seemed to just turn to their neighbor and say, "What's your number?" and write that down.

Finally, rehearsal is over and it is time for you to leave for lunch. When you return that is the time to bring all your supplies and dresses for the pageant. Bring curling irons, make-up, hair pins, casual wear, shoes, props, and other items you may need. You may want to mark each thing with your name because it may be lost or worst case -stolen. The reason for this is because the backstage dressing area is for the Contestants only. If your child does need help to fix their hair or change from casual to formal, etc. the guardian is allowed to go back and help and if you plan to do this then be sure to get a seat in the auditorium that is close to an exit and on the end so when you get up and go back and forth a lot you won't disturb too many others in the audience. Also, another point to mention here- Surprisingly, the pageants usually require a ticket to get in to watch it and guess what? - that includes the Parents, siblings, grandparents, guardians, etc. Anyone at all who enters the building to watch must purchase a ticket. The tickets range from $10-$30.00 on most pageants. 

There are generally a set of intermissions and they are brief but the pageants usually are quite long. They do the tallying and announcements right after the intermissions.  There are different age ranges competing as well so they go through exact things several times for each age group. Each age group normally has just one question per age group so each individual contestant does not have their own individual question. Be unique and different in your answer. Such as, "What do you do the first thing after school?" Possibly most children will answer, "I go home and eat a snack." that is fine but what shows personality and what judges will remember will be an answer like, " I take a huge glob of peanut butter spread it on my mom's wheat bread and load it up with Strawberry jam! It goes down great with some cold milk!" or etc.

 When the top ten is announced all scores reset to zero. They are all even at this point and the entire winning process hinges on one final judgement. Each contestant takes an envelope from the emcee and he reads a random question to them that they did NOT practice for like they probably did with their question they were given to mull over during lunch break. This answer to the question is the main thing that determines the winner from the top ten.  Usually the judges  are very moved by audience reaction at this point. If the audience sighs and says, "Awww..." or "How sweet", and things such as this, the contestant is going to get a good score.

The questions are all different at this point as well so each of the ten will get their own question. The children are usually nervous at this point and often , I've seen them clam up even though they did excellent at other parts of the process. The reason is probably because it is totally not rehearsed and they have no idea what is coming.

After the final winner is announced Awards and trophies are presented and usually the winner will receive a tiara and possibly some flowers. They do a victory walk across the stage and then it is over very  fast. The applause flows, the judges stand up and leave and that is it.

Often, contestants and parents as well have no idea what to do next. Even the winner doesn't know what to do because they went over that information way back in that "training class" and no one remembered it.  The winner usually exits to the dressing room and meets their parents there and with no officials to see and no pageant people still around, they have no choice but to leave and go home and wonder. But, just a few short days later, they will receive a phone call and also a letter in the mail telling them about the next round of the competition.

The new information they get will tell them the fees to enter the next contest, the travel plans they will need to make if any, and other items of information. However, it will be a very similar process all over again. You will think you received all the information and then be confronted later with a situation like the Miss Congeniality voting. You are presented with an opportunity to vote and you have to vote by number and you never really even got to meet any other contestants and if you did, you only know their name. So, to avoid situations like that, you need to know the questions you'd like to have answered. Write them down. Find out if the parent has to pay to enter the auditorium, do you have to enter each contest they offer in order to be available to win the major one? What are the entry fees for each thing? The big dinner they say is going to be served - does it include a drink? If the contestant is required to have a guardian does the guaridian have to pay for events as well? Is it required that the contestant sell advertising space in the pageant brochure or is that an optional thing? (some pageants REQUIRE that you go out and sell ad space in order to get to be a contestant).

As you can see so many things are involved and even though this is a long article, I have barely covered them. My main point is not to make it look like it is too much trouble and expense to be in a pageant as it almost appears I have done. But, it is to give information to potential entrants so they can not go in blind. 

Perhaps it would be best to go back to my first and original question - really ask yourself, "Why do I want to put my child in a pageant?"  If the answer satisfies you then by all means, go for it. Pageants can bring out the most beauty in a person that you can imagine. Confidence and self esteem can be built up and can carry through to many aspects of life. Choose which pageants to enter very carefully and enjoy every moment of it all. The children can make life long friends, can learn good sportsmanship, can win scholarships and all kinds of other benefical things.

Good luck to all contestants and remember just be the natural beauty you are, let your personality shine through and do your best. If at any time you decide pageantry is not for you anymore or you would like to go into another aspect of it like modeling or acting, etc. then go ahead and take your memories with you and leave the pageants behind and go for your new and developing dreams.