Toddlers get their glam on
Tots strut their stuff in sequins at Hollywood Glamour pageant
Without hesitation, two-yearold Briar Greenon prances onto the stage.
Dressed in a purple sequined and satin dress, Greenon carefully hits each mark on the stage and she looks at her father, Andrew Greenon. With each glance she mirrors her father. He twirls, she twirls, he blows a kiss, she blows one.
Andrew Greenon is standing at the Parents’ Box, a colloquial term for a box located behind the judges where parents can guide their young children through their routine.
“For her it’s just natural, we don’t even really have to do any coaching. She’s a ham, loves to be the centre of attention,” said Briar’s mother Nicole Jenkins.
This is Briar’s third pageant and, with the help of her father’s twirling at the Parents’ Box, she won her division on Sunday afternoon. “She’s made for it,” Jenkins said. “And I’m afraid of what it’s going to cost me when she gets older.”
Briar Greenon, along with countless other girls, took to the stage on the weekend at the Best Western on Stony Plain Road to compete in Princess Pageants’ Hollywood Glamour pageant. With registration costing $150-$300 per child it can be costly — and that doesn’t include the dress, the makeup or the hair.
Makeup artists, a hair stylist and a pageant coach prepped girls for their time on stage. A sit-down with the makeup artists costs $50, hairstyling $25 and a half-hour with coach Brittanee Tomkow, $25.
“You could easily spend $5,000 a year, or a more low-key family would spend $1,500,” said Shauna Callies, a seasoned pageant mother whose daughter Jaedyn has been competing for the last two years.
Pageantry is just starting to grow in Alberta, said Jade Gardiner, one of the directors for Princess Pageants. Currently Princess Pageants is one of the few pageants in Canada that holds “Glitz” pageants. According to Gardiner, most pageants are “natural,” meaning contestants follow minimal makeup rules and wear their “Sunday best” dress for competition. Glitz allows for spray tanning, fake eyelashes, wigs and an overall more grandiose costume.
“Pageants are relatively new to Alberta, there’s only a handful of pageants, coaches and companies,” Gardiner said. “In the States they’re on every corner, it just hasn’t caught on here. In the States, pageants are like what hockey is in Canada.”
Television shows like Toddlers and Tiaras and Here Comes Honey Boo Boo have raised the profile of child pageantry in the last few years. Watching Toddlers and Tiaras inspired Jaedyn Callies, 8, to get into pageants. “I started watching the show and I thought it would be something new and fun,” Callies said.
As a pageant coach, Tomkow said her business is booming. At Sunday’s pageant, she had coached six of the contestants. “I’m the only coach who is actually in Alberta,” said Tomkow, noting that there are few coaches in the country. “It exploded in July, because of Princess Pageants and a company out of B.C. started coming into Alberta.”