Going too far in “Pageant Life”

           I read an online new article by Paul Bentley titled “Child welfare services investigate pageant mother over Botox injections given to her eight-year-old daughter.”
I was completely shocked by the title and as I read on it got worse. A California mother was giving her eight year old daughter anti-wrinkle Botox to prevent the “wrinkles” she had when she smiled. The reason she was giving the injections was to minimize the lines that were showing with her daughters smile. The mother reports that she got this idea from other pageant moms when they began to point out her daughter’s wrinkles and they brought up the idea of Botox, saying they have used it before. Botox injections are painful and are not suppose to be given to anyone under the age of eighteen. The mother also stated that she waxed her daughter’s upper legs “in case she hits puberty and any ‘fluffy hair’ starts to appear.” She states that judges will take points off for stuff like this and pageant life is rough to deal with. The mother, who is a part time beautician, also administers Botox to herself. She says that they only time she gives it to her daughter is when they are applying it for pageants and she asks for it to be done. The mother says that her child has “watched me do it before, so when we first did it she was fine with it.” These treatments consist of five injections in three different places to improve the sight of the eight year olds “wrinkles.” The daughter, Britney, stated that “I just don't think it's ladylike to have hair on your legs. I did that one time. It was super, super hard. It hurts.” She is referring to getting her legs waxed and the pain she remembered. When she was asked if she would like to be waxed again she quickly replied “No.” Experts say that this mother is at serious risk for having Britney deal with psychological and physical issues throughout her life due to everything she has been put through at such a young age. The mother insists that she is a good parent and isn’t doing anything that the other pageant moms wouldn’t do. She states that “I have a normal child. It’s not breaking her spirit. She’s happy. She runs around. She’s smart. I’m a great mother. I’ve taken care of her by myself my whole life and nobody can really tell me what I’m doing is wrong because it’s me. I live in my shoes and she lives in her. She’s a happy kid and that’s the bottom line.”  Britney says that “it hurts sometimes. It makes me nervous but I get used to it. My friends think it’s cool I have all the treatments and they want to be like me. I check every night for my wrinkles, when I see some I want more injections. They used to hurt, but now I don’t cry that much.” I think that this is pushing it too far for a pageant. By administering injections to prevent an eight year olds “wrinkles” and waxing her legs, I think it is giving her daughter the wrong image about what pageants are suppose to be about.