Sasha Bennington, 13, one of the most successful child beauty queens on the UK circuit, undergoes a gruelling beauty routine to keep up appearances and insists on a spray tan every week, a new set of acrylic nails each month and regular bleaching of her white-blonde hair.

For a successful child beauty queen the rewards can be lucrative – the winner of Junior Miss British Isles can expect to pocket £2,500 – but it takes a lot of work. A typical beauty pageant will consist of several rounds, often including an 'evening wear' section, where children parade down a catwalk swathed in taffeta and Swarovski crystals, and a talent round, in which contestants will display a particular gift, such as singing, dancing or baton-twirling. Many of the contestants are as young as five and one pageant excludes anyone over the age of 12. Today, more than 20 are held each year with thousands of girls (and sometimes even boys) taking part. But in a Britain increasingly enamoured with the instant fame of reality television stars and image-conscious glamour models, demand for child beauty contests has risen exponentially.įive years ago, there were no mini beauty pageants in Britain. Although such contests are commonplace in America, where they have spawned a multimillion-dollar industry, they are a relatively new import to this side of the Atlantic. The child beauty pageant circuit in the UK has seen a recent explosion in popularity. Will she be entering any more? 'Yes.' She pauses, a touch uncertainly. Because as well as being a normal seven-year-old, Amber is also an aspiring child beauty queen.ĭid she enjoy entering the beauty pageant? Amber thinks for a second and then nods her head. Later, she will show me a certificate she was given for taking part in the Mini Miss UK competition earlier this year. Her hair has been styled with two sparkly hairclips and she is wearing a pale pink dress studded with fabric flowers. But it is hard not to notice as she talks that her eyelids are powdered with gold eyeshadow. To all intents and purposes, Amber is a confident little girl with an array of enthusiasms and interests.

She lays them in a line on the carpet and looks at them proudly. 'This is my red collection,' she says, unzipping her pink rucksack and carefully lifting out a series of rust- coloured stones. But, most of all, Amber likes to collect stones. She also likes watching music videos on YouTube and making up dances to accompany the songs of JLS, her favourite boy-band. She sleeps with a poster of the actress above her bed and stores all her most treasured possessions in a glittery purple box emblazoned with the image of Hannah Montana. A mber is seven years old and loves Miley Cyrus.

Beauty pageant competition