Mum hits back at critics over beauty pageants
AMOTHER has defended herself after she was called a bad mum for letting her young daughter compete in beauty pageants.
Chloe Priestley has been entering her daughter Mia, now six, into beauty pageants since she was four years old.
Mia has won several of the competitions she has entered and her mum says she loves doing it.
After Mia came second in the Pure UK beauty pageant, Chloe was heavily criticised by people commenting on a story about the pageant in the Western Telegraph.
She was called a bad mum and told that it was “awful parenting”.
But Chloe who lives in Llanreath, Pembrokeshire, insists the critics are wrong and competing in beauty pageants is good for her daughter.
She said the competition is about inner beauty, rather than what you look like.
She said: “It’s grown [Mia’s] confidence greatly.
“She’s only six but she feels so comfortable holding conversations with children and grown-ups.
“She speaks in front of hundreds of people in these pageants, there aren’t many six-year-olds who can do that on their own.
“I think the pageants we’re shown on television have really influenced how people see what Mia does.
“They see these mothers forcing their children to take part, and wear make-up and giving their children body-confidence issues, but that isn’t what we’re doing with Mia.
“I was so doubtful about pageants before I did my research and actually started to go to them.
“The children are so kind, and show Mia that she can do it, and there’s such a sense of sportsmanship among the parents and the children.
“We’ve made so many friends, it’s like being a part of a big family.
“I always ask her, right before she goes up on stage to speak, I tell her that she doesn’t have to do it, we can go home and walk out right now and it’s OK, but she always tells me she wants to do it. She wants to compete.”
Mia’s first pageants were when she was four.
Chloe said: “I made sure it was the right kind of pageant, did a lot of research and made sure Mia was sure she’d like to do it.
“She ended up winning Little Miss Cardiff and Little Miss Sunshine.
“We took a break for a couple years after that, I had a baby and there wasn’t a lot of time.
“Mia loves doing it. There’s no forcing her, she does it because she wants to. It’s like her dance classes, she has competed in that hobby as well because she wants to.
“I think so many people don’t understand that there are good pageants and bad pageants, and that’s mostly to do with how the media portrays them.
“I’ve had a lot of people say I’m a bad mother for forcing Mia to do these pageants, but they have no idea who I am, or who Mia is.
“She doesn’t do anything she doesn’t want to, this is her choice.” Chloe says her critics went too far. “Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and I understand that some people don’t like pageants, but I think they crossed a line with some of the comments made,” she said.
“We’re trying not to dwell on it. Mia knows what she wants to do, and I’m going to support her.
“Pure is a good pageant for children, there’s no make-up, hair extensions or fake tan allowed.
“As an example of this, one year a little girl won it, but when she came up on stage to collect her award she was wearing lip gloss, and the title was taken away from her.
“I’m like any other mum, I don’t want my six-year-old wearing make-up and fake tan, that’s why the pageants she competes in have to be the right ones.”
Chloe added: “These pageants aren’t about physical beauty, they’re about confidence, and public speaking.
“The little girls have to go up on stage, in front of hundreds of people and introduce themselves, saying who they are, their hobbies, things like that, for about three minutes.
“Then they have a personal interview with the judges, where they go into a room alone with the judges and discus their schooling, the charity work they’ve done over the last 12 months, and answer questions confidently.
“There is a modelling round, and the judges look for confidence and how comfortable the child is on the cat walk.”
There is a fundraising page set up for people to donate if they want to support Mia going to Orlando to compete in the international finals of the Pure pageant.
Chloe said: “The just giving page is in case anyone wants to support Mia and help us afford flights and outfits and accommodation for the trip to Florida.
“Everything has already been paid for, and we have got a sponsor for the trip, but it’s not a cheap trip, and noone has to donate if they don’t want to.
“A proportion of donations will go to our local charity, Paul Sartori.
“The actual competition is on June 4, but we spend the whole week beforehand training.
“The girls practise speaking, the interviews, rehearse everything, so the only free day we have away from training is June 27.
“It’s a lot of hard work, but Mia loves it.
“She says when she grows up she wants to be a role model, or a teacher, but most of all she wants to help people.”