The "Little Model" competition was held in the city of Ha...

According to the local press, on December 9, 2012, the Far Eastern Fashion Theater of Anna Karpus and the editors of the fashion magazine "Fashion Collection Khabarovsk-Vladivostok" held a professional modeling competition among teenagers "Little Model of the Far East 2012". IA AmurMedia writes that forty participants aged from 10 to 16 years old delighted all the spectators who gathered that evening, December 9, at the Velicano club with their beauty. At 17:00 the Velicano nightclub opened its doors to those who wanted to support and look at the young fashionistas...

Indeed, where else to hold such a children's competition if not in a nightclub, or rather, the Velicano club?!

The question arises: why did they start this selection among children?! According to the media, this competition is the qualifying round of the international competition BestChildModeloftheWorld. The main prize for the winners is the opportunity to represent the Far East at the all-Russian level...

The media report with admiration that “mothers became designers, fathers became designers, and daughters became ideological inspirers and, naturally, models.” Indeed, we should be happy for the participants and their families... However, I will give the opinions of only two psychologists about the participation of children in such shows.

Psychologist Alena Frolova:

“A beauty contest is a difficult test for a child. A contradiction arises here: we teach our girls to be individual, spontaneous, not like others, but on the other hand, when we bring her to the contest, we immediately offer a certain standard, a certain stereotype. A certain model of behavior that she must follow to win.

In addition, all beauty contests are aimed at satisfying the “narcissistic needs” and no longer of the child himself, but of the parents.

“My girl is the most beautiful, and if she wins the competition, I love her, but if she doesn’t win, then she’s not beautiful enough.” Parents do not hide their disappointment and thereby traumatize the child. This is the second traumatic aspect. All this can lead to the child being dissatisfied with his appearance. This can be especially acute during adolescence."

Doctor of Psychology Natalya Maksimova about holding such events:

“Is it worth indulging a child in his desire to participate in a beauty pageant?

Parents should not forget that any competition is always a competition, which means excitement and excitement, which do not have the best effect on the fragile child’s psyche. Children are especially often afraid of not living up to their parents' expectations. After all, most often it is adults who decide whether their child should participate in a beauty contest or not. The child may begin to feel that parental love depends on his victory or defeat. And he experiences extreme stress when he has to sing and dance on stage in front of strangers, trying to earn the love of mom and dad..."

As mentioned above, “girls aged from 10 to 16 years old took part in the competition, mostly students of the Children’s Fashion Theater and the Anna Karpus Far Eastern Fashion Theater Model School (Khabarovsk),” although, you see, calling a child 10 years old “ girl" I can’t even turn my tongue. It turns out, as they themselves write about themselves on their website, “The Far Eastern Fashion Theater of Anna Karpus has been training children and teenagers for 12 years. The Elite School of Models is the only school of models and beauty in the Khabarovsk Territory, which has the right, according to a license issued by the Department of Primary professional education of the Khabarovsk Territory, to assign the qualification “clothing demonstrator” (model).”

So should parents prepare a future for their children as “clothing demonstrators (models)”?!

And what kind of future awaits the selected child models?! For example, on the social network VKontakte, the organizer of this competition, director of the Far Eastern Fashion Theater, Mrs. Anna Karpus, joyfully reports:

"Models of the Far Eastern Fashion Theater are conquering the world's catwalks! At the beginning of September, Yulia Grigorieva and Evgenia Savchenko went to work abroad. Yulia signed a contract with one of the best modeling agencies in Bangkok and returned to Khabarovsk at the end of November. And Evgenia continues her work under a contract with the largest French modeling agency "Mademoiselle"... It seems that the "ceiling of dreams" is work over the hill, even in Asian countries...

Although, as the media write, in France, after American protests against the show Toddlers and Tiaras ("Crown Babies", a program about the preparation and holding of children's beauty contests), they began to think about the feasibility of such competitions. Opponents of the event stressed that this is a “risk for the physical and mental health of children.”

According to psychiatrist Stéphane Clerger, children begin to think that beauty is the only thing they have, and later they can develop manic ideas, girls can become obsessed with their appearance. In France, society, even on the Internet, is literally fighting for the abolition of beauty contests for children...

Truly:

“Isn’t it madness to drink a sea of ​​bitterness for a glass of sweetness?”

Hieromonk Arseny Svyatogorets (XIX century).

PS

Young beauties competed for the title and crown (Photo: IA AmurMedia)