Don’t Judge My Little Beauty!
‘Don’t judge me or my daughter,’ says Anita
Catching the eye of the girl on the sun lounger, I smiled. She wore a white criss-cross bikini and held her phone aloft.
She pouted for a selfie... lippie gleaming, hair extensions piled high on her head and glowing with fake tan.
Sounds like a glamour puss, right? Nope. It was my sevenyear-old daughter Beau!
She was acting in a beauty pageant as Amber Davies, 20, from TV show Love Island.
Truth is, Beau’s actually always been a tomboy. She loves to play football and tussle with boys at school.
However, she also loves pretty girls, like the girls on the telly who totter around in high heels and tiny clobber.
Beau’s been in beauty pageants since she was 2 and has always loved watching Toddlers and Tiaras with her girly cousins, twice her age.
They all loved sparkly dresses and entered pageants from a young age. Beau just copied them. She won her first-ever pageant in a sequinned Union Jack dress!
As she grew older, she’d
always act out the part of men. Be it Jeremy Kyle, The Mask...
See, pageants aren’t all catwalks, glitz and glam! They’re about acting and showing real talent.
But who doesn’t love a spray tan and some lippie!?
So, this June, Beau had a plan for her next pageant.
After watching clips of Love Island with me, she fell in love with Amber.
‘That’s my next pageant!’ Beau cried from the sofa.
Sassy, beautiful and independent – Amber was exactly like Beau. Plus Amber won Love Island! Hopefully she’d help Beau win her next pageant crown… Amber was iconic on the show for wearing a grey bikini that crossed over her boobs and enhanced her best assets. ‘I want to look just like her,’ Beau said. We had just four days until the next pageant, so we worked hard to nail the tan, hair extensions and the swimsuit.
Tears of pride
Beau looked incredible. And she was so confident, strutting around in her outfit.
Next was the dance routine. I showed her a mix of booty shakes and twerks, which she aced. She’d seen plenty of it from her idols Ariana Grande and Little Mix.
I beamed with pride as she perfected the routine – just in time for the pageant!
The night before, I topped up her tan and clipped in her extensions.
Beau does just one show every month, but some of the girls do three over a weekend.
This time, the Southern Beauties pageant in Lee-onthe-solent cost £60 to enter.
I knew Beau would breeze
Pageants aren’t all glitz – they’re about real talent
through – and she did! We had her lying on a sun lounger as the Love Island theme tune came on.
She got up and pouted to the music, showing off her red lippie.
A voiceover introduced her routine.
Girls, it’s time to drop it like it’s hot… in the battle of the booties!
Beau erupted into a raunchy dance of gyrating and body pops.
I cried tears of pride. ‘How do you two do it?’ a mum whispered to me.
I beamed as I filmed Beau on my phone. And her performance was met with a cheer as she bowed. Of course, she won! A huge 20-inch glitzy crown to add to her collection.
But when we got home,
Beau piled her hair in a messy bun and put on joggers and glasses.
She’s not a beauty pageant queen all the time!
After I posted her routine online, it went viral.
I got so much abuse – with some parents even calling me scum and saying that I was sexualising my daughter. They thought I was endangering her by encouraging paedophiles.
What utter nonsense! I’ve seen ballet dancers in much smaller, tighter outfits and they don’t get abuse.
If you think my daughter’s sexy, you’ve got problems.
Me and Beau, now 8, haven’t even had the birds and the bees talk yet! And I don’t let her watch Love Island constantly, so the steamy, romping scenes aren’t on show to her.
Heart’s content
So don’t judge me before you’ve even met me, and please don’t judge Beau.
When you think about it, she’s just a little girl playing dress up. The comments won’t stop us – I’ll still let my daughter wear fun outfits and I’ll do her make-up and spray tan to her heart’s content.
Even now, we’re preparing for her next pageant.
I’m pregnant at the moment – I don’t know what I’m having but we have a wardrobe full of outfits if it’s another girl! I’m a great parent, who lets her child have fun and follow their dreams. What’s so wrong about that?
I got so much abuse – parents called me scum