Is Little Miss Aotearoa ‘changing pageant rules’ or a ‘beast in pink lipstick’?
A new child beauty pageant began in New Zealand this year. Emily Brookes discovers why – and asks whether it is a good thing.
As you read this, 10-year-old Tapaita Fonokalafi is in Turkey, competing in the Little Miss and Mister Universe competition. In April, she was crowned the inaugural Little Miss Aotearoa New Zealand.
Competition founder Kogi So said the pageant motto is “true beauty is from within”, but some have expressed shock that a child pageant was held, let alone established, in 2024.
“Divine femininity is amazing,” said Angela Barnett, a writer and co-founder of the Like Bodies, Like Minds project.
“It's powerful, it's wonderful. It's fun and everything that you want it to be.
“But why do we have to make it a competition?“
So, a real estate agent in Christchurch, was inspired to create Little Miss Aotearoa after her own pageant experience: she was crowned Miss Rotorua in 2021, then Mrs Universe New Zealand in 2022.
After winning Mrs Universe NZ, So headed to Bulgaria for the Mrs Universe competition, where she was named Mrs Generosity.
“At that moment I have met lots of amazing women in the world,” said So, who was born and raised in Hong Kong. “I get really inspired by them, so I was just thinking, hmmm, why don’t we have a kids [pageant], because I think our future is our kids.”
She was also moved by her own experiences of being bullied as a “chubby” primary school student.
“I don’t want any people or children that I know to [go] through what I have been through,” she said. “I think I’m doing a good thing, sending the positive message to the kids... I’m changing the pageant rules. I want to change stereotypes.”
So said the focus of the competition was community work, with 30% of the contestants’ overall grade coming from their engagement with philanthropic causes (Tapaita took on an impressive five charity roles).
But they also compete in a traditional evening gown competition for 20%, while sustainable national wear, which they both create and model, is also worth 20%.
Another 15% of the vote is based on their performance in what the pageant calls
“personality in sportswear” and is more commonly known as cheerleading.
The final 15% is people’s choice.
As well as the Little Miss category, for girls aged 10-13, there is Miss Teen, for 14to 17-year-olds, and Junior Miss, for girls between 6 and 9.
The full programme took place over eight weeks, culminating in crowning day.
By competing in a pageant, So said, “you can really enjoy your own beauty, really embrace your own beauty, and how to love yourself first. Lots of kids I think lack confidence, so once you love yourself and you’re really confident, you can make it.”
Barnett, however, feared pageants did the exact opposite. “It’s teaching young women that their outward appearance is the most important thing about them. And that does not actually help confidence. It takes away from confidence.”
She thought the beauty industry did a good enough job of creating competition between women over their appearance, “which keeps us buying products and worrying about how we look”.
Barnett said the claim that a beauty pageant was a window to confidence was “tired old-model thinking” and that she would rather see girls encouraged to participate in leadership programmes or sports.
“Or if it was like a speech pageant that was about building confidence to speak up and speak out,” she said. “You could do it in dungarees, you could do it in a spacesuit.”
So said her pageant was “totally different than before”. She pointed out that while girls could wear full stage make-up if they wanted to, many elected to go for a “more simple and more natural” look.
Little Miss Aotearoa NZ was a notfor-profit organisation, with this year’s proceeds being donated to the Starship Foundation.
So’s own two daughters, aged 6 and 10, both competed this year and “they loved it”, she said. “They made a lot of friends and they told me, ‘oh, I just love it Mummy, I want to join other pageants’.”
Her favourite memory, she said, was the rehearsal for crowning day. “I was just looking at the girls and how they’ve transformed. Before they were really shy and didn’t talk much, but by the end of pageant day they were just like family, friends, and they even cried... I told myself, OK, I’m doing the right things.”
The pageant had attracted a variety of girls, she said, from a range of ethnicities and backgrounds.
“Some of them, they’ve never been into girly things” – including Tapaita, who So said “told me she’s just used to wearing gumboots on the farm”.
Others were dancers or had modelling experience.
“But also some of them really do want the confidence gain.”
Barnett said there was nothing wrong with anyone enjoying dressing up or wearing make-up and that it was “important not to shame young girls who love all the feminine side”.
But if confidence was the goal, she went on, “they should educate young women about the ableist, racist, and often transphobic messages embedded in the beauty industry and the wider entertainment industry, and how not to compare themselves to those unrealistic standards that will come at them their whole life.
“It’s an incredibly powerful industry. It’s kind of like a beast in pink lipstick.”
So said she was aware that pageants could be a divisive subject, but said she had received positive feedback about Little Miss Aotearoa from parents, teachers and principals.
Crowning day was just the start of the journey for the contestants, she said.
“Of course I can’t force everybody to do the same things but once you really learn something and you think you deserve it and you set a goal, I think that’s a really big difference for them.”
The competition will run again in 2025.
“I don’t want any people or children that I know to [go] through what I have been through. I think I’m doing a good thing, sending the positive message to the kids... I’m changing the pageant rules. I want to change stereotypes.” Kogi So