Tonight I had the chance to watch the TV show on TLC that caught up with two young girls filmed fifteen years ago for a documentary called "Painted Babies". One of the girls was still doing pageants at the time of filming, although I discovered that the other girl, Brooke Breedwell, also competed for Miss TN's Outstanding Teen in 2007.
The show didn't portray pageants as negatively as I had expected. Asia Mansur, the girl who was still competing in glitz pageants at 17, seemed to have a good head on her shoulders. She didn't get angry or upset when things didn't go her way, and both girls talked about the poise they had gained from competing in pageants.
The most bizarre thing about the show was that the same emcee from 15 years ago was still working for the pageant, singing cheesy songs to the girls like "God Bless America" as they completed their eveningwear walks. He even got teary-eyed talking about America on camera, so that part had me laughing out loud (as well as someone's sibling named Treasure) but aside from that, it wasn't as negative as it could have been.
While it was clear that in the younger divisions the moms were pushing a lot of the girls to compete, it was refreshing to see a document that generally just focused on what Asia was doing, how her family got involved, and how Asia had been changed by pageants. The family seemed to support one another and have a lot of fun, so for the first time, I was pleasantly surprised by a TV show about pageantry!
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