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When we heard that boys -- some as young as two weeks old -- were increasingly participating in child beauty pageants, we can't say we were surprised. Especially since we heard it from TLC, who bring us "Toddlers and Tiaras," a mesmerizing show about pageant participants and their insane stage mothers.

One of the stars of the boy pageant scene is Cruz Rodriguez, a New Jersey entrant who's just under 2 years old. He'll appear on the show in January, after producers of the show documented his appearance in the Tampa Miss Glitz Pageant.

But it's not Cruz's first time at the rodeo -- according to an interview his mother Nicole gave South Jersey's Courier Post, Cruz has been modeling almost since birth.

"People would come up to me, mistaking him for a girl, and tell me that my little girl was so beautiful and I should get her into modeling," Nicole told the paper. "I could only imagine how he would stand out as a boy." The article adds that she's "growing her son's curls long so he can keep that girly look."

It's not such an unusual thing for boys to participate in pageants, although they certainly do so in much smaller numbers. Child pageant competitors can vary from "Baby Misses" and "Misters" (aged "0-11 months") to "Junior Misters," boys of age 4 and older and girls from 1 year old to as old as 16. Boys are separated by age as entrants and don't often compete in the same categories as the girls.

But the second-season premiere of "Toddlers and Tiaras" caused a stir back in April, when the mother of the first boys to appear on the show said that she signed up her sons for pageants because, lacking daughters, she'd "just turn 'em into girls." Some, like women's site Jezebel, worried that it forced the boys "into gender roles they may not be naturally attracted to." Some just thought it was weird.

In an excerpt from the show, a pageant mom takes the stage with a 2-week-old baby boy named Cavin who's too young to hold up his own head. Another young pageant Mister, who comes off like a true vet of the scene, remarks, "He wants to win really, really, really badly. But he doesn't know that." Check out the clip below and let us know what you think.




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