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Babies covered in bling, toddlers in tiaras, pre-teens in ball gowns and fake eye lashes... it's all part of the spectacle you see at a child beauty pageant. (And don't get us started on pageant moms.)

Baby beauty pageants came to wide public attention in 1996, after the murder of six-year-old pageant competitor JonBenet Ramsey and have developed a stigma. Critics accused the contests of sexualizing toddlers. But are they really bad for girls?

A recent documentary, "Painted Babies at 17" checks up on two teens who participated in child pageants (both girls were featured in an earlier documentary "Painted Babies"). Another young woman who says she's turned out perfectly well is Tiffany (left), a twenty-five year old former "painted baby" who happily agreed to speak with us about the competitions.

Famous Former Beauty Queens

    NOW: Sarah Palin is the governor of Alaska and the polarizing Republican vice-presidential candidate.

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    THEN: In 1984, Palin was Miss Wasilla. She went on to compete in the Miss Alaska Pageant, where she was voted "Miss Congeniality."

    Celebslap.com

    NOW: Halle Berry is a high-grossing actress who is also the only African-American woman to have won the Academy Award for Best Actress.

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    THEN: In 1986, Berry was making guys say Halle-lujah in her bathing suit and heels as Miss Ohio USA.

    AP Images

    NOW: 62-year-old Diane Sawyer is co-anchor of "Good Morning America" and one of the 100 most powerful women in the World, according to Forbes.

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    THEN: In 1963, Sawyer won the "America's Junior Miss" pageant as Miss Kentucky.

    AP Images

    NOW: "Designing Women" star Delta Burke continues to act in film and television, as well as running her own plus-size clothing label.

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    THEN: In 1974, Burke won the Miss Florida title. Her dramatic recital about soon-to-be-executed Queen Anne Boleyn, performed in a Southern accent, failed to win her the Miss America title.

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    NOW: Eva Longoria is most famous for her role on "Desperate Housewives," and her marriage to NBA guard Tony Parker.

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    THEN: Longoria wasn't too desperate to win the title of Miss Corpus Christi USA in 1998.

    People.com



"Sounded Like Fun"
Tiffany was seven when she entered her first pageant and thought her mother's idea of getting up on stage and smiling sounded like fun.

"We got there early and we see all these girls, decked out," she told us, "these porcelain doll looking chicks with crystal and diamonds all over them...I didn't even have a dress."

Click here to read about Tiffany's child pageant days and see a clip of the doc.

The one she found ("I like to call it the lamp shade dress," she says) was a short pink chiffon number with a hoop skirt, purchased at K-Mart. With a $20 lamp shade of a dress on and absolutely no experience, Tiffany took the stage at her first competition and walked away First Runner Up.

Beauty Boot Camp
After winning the title of Little Miss Italian and a handful of preliminary competitions, Tiffany was headed to nationals. That's when pageant boot camp began.

She and her mother spent six months preparing for per pageant, hiring a seamstress and a modeling coach who trained her twice a week. "She taught me the signature ProAm move that involved a jacket -- I put the jacket on my shoulders without my arms in the sleeves then I'd bump it, catch up, slide it over my arms. There were all kinds of things you could do with a jacket. It was serious."

And everyone involved took it very seriously.

Learning the "Correct" Personality
Tiffany's coach also taught her the correct way to strut and the official "pageant stance" (shoulders back, chest out, and the left leg crossed over the right topped with an ear-to ear-grin), but she also grilled her for the "interview process," where the girls' personalities are assessed.

The preteen spent weeks being quizzed until she became a small talk expert. "My mom would ask me random questions ... what's your favorite color, how many siblings do you have, who would you like to meet.... so I could carry on a conversation and practice giving more than one-word answers."


All the hard work paid off -- Tiffany often took the "personality" prize in subsequent pageants. It also both helped her and hurt her in school. "I had a lot of friends because I talked to everyone, but I got in trouble because I talked too much."

Fake Breasts and a Barbie Car
When asked if the competitions sexualize children, Tiffany demurred.

"It was more about being cutesy than sexy. My mom put a big flower in my hair and I'd just priss around. You'd just get up there and strut, shake your butt." But she acknowledged that the girls often used "jellies," false breasts they'd use during swimsuit competition, along with spray tanning, fake eye lashes, and fake hair.

She also admitted that for some girls, losing or messing up were grounds for punishment, but that that her mother was never anything but supportive, shaking off losses with "Next time! Now let's go get ice cream!"

All in all, Tiffany thinks that the effects of competition depend on the competitor and her family. "Pageants for me helped with interviewing for jobs, being secure and social, and just learning how to be a girl." She also liked the prizes -- crowns, trophies, and her favorite, a pink Barbie electric car she won at age 9.

When asked if she'd put a daughter of her own in pageants, she replied, "I think I would... but I'd wait until 7 or 8 and ask them if they want to do it."

Also on Lemondrop: Check out some of old Hollywood's best beauty secrets!


Old Hollywood Beauty Secrets

    Marilyn Monroe The name isn't all that separated Norma Jean Baker from Marilyn Monroe. In addition to going from brown to blonde, the bombshell is said to have had her chin and nose surgically altered. Another beauty secret: ice baths splashed with Chanel No. 5.

    AP

    Vivien Leigh In "Vivien Leigh: A Biography," author Anne Edwards claims that Leigh used her favorite perfume, Joy, as a room spray, deodorant, and -- great balls of fire! -- breath freshener. Frankly my dear, that's just plain weird.

    ZUMA Press

    Mae West The queen of double entendres relied on eight-inch platform heels to maximize her stage presence, and spent two hours a day massaging cold cream into her breasts to keep them nice and perky. She's also rumored to have undergone a daily enema.

    John Kobal Foundation / Getty Images

    Joan Crawford Mommie Dearest once claimed her favorite beauty secret was "soap and water," but she was reportedly no stranger to the plastic surgeon's scalpel either. And if her film portrayal is to be believed, Crawford slept with surgical tape on her face and woke up with a round of bobbing for ice cubes.

    John Engstead / John Kobal Foundation / Getty Images

    Bette Davis Her eyes may be the stuff of '80s one-hit wonders, but Bette Davis' undersized mouth needed a little help. To compensate, Davis would color outside of her lip lines with lipstick (just like Grandma!). She also relied on face-lifting tapes and cosmetic surgery later in life.

    AP

    Rita Hayworth With luscious auburn locks and killer dance moves, she made being a glamazon look easy. In truth, her natural dark brown tresses were dyed red at the command of Fox Studios, and she was made to undergo countless electrolysis treatments to raise her hairline -- call it the reverse Brendan Fraser.

    A. L. Whitey Schafer / John Kobal Foundation / Getty Images

    Greta Garbo The notoriously private Swede remains one of Hollywood's greatest beauties, but even she had her Ugly Betty moments. MGM head Louis B. Mayer ordered the starlet to lose weight, get her hairline straightened and have her teeth fixed before putting her in films.

    Ruth Harriet Louise / John Kobal Foundation / Getty Images

    Norma Shearer This Oscar-winner spent a fortune trying to correct a weak eye that made her appear cross-eyed, which she sometimes blamed on bad lighting. She was fixated with her looks, maintaining a rigorous exercise and diet regimen and, in later years, powdering her face until it was ghostly white.

    George Hurrell / John Kobal Foundation / Getty Images

    Marlene Dietrich Rumor has it that this sleepy-eyed fraulein hid her frown lines by wearing a gold chain that hooked to her hairpins; one yank of the chain created an instant face lift of sorts. She reportedly also wore wigs (sprinkled with real gold dust, no less) to hide her thinning hair and often used face-lift tapes.

    London Express / Getty Images