Dear Mothers of Young Contestants,
We are excited to have your little princess in our pageant. We have a
pageant set up for fun for the birth through eight year old contestants. While
we may dream for our little one to be on TV with a national ad campaign one
day, our pageant is preparing them for feeling wonderful in front of the public
by exposing them to large audiences at this young age so that they become
comfortable in a social setting and move onto enjoying being in the public
eye. The Miss Memorial Day Pageant offers opportunities for our little girls, at
this point, to have a dream day of being a Miss Memorial Day Princess.
We want them to smile, have fun, dress up, meet new friends, take home a
prize, make Daddy and Nana proud, and spend quality family time at the
pageant. With that in mind, I would like to offer to you some tips to make
"Pageant Play" a fun time for you and your daughter. Let her know that she
is going to get to go "play pageant" with her friends or cousins.
1. Choose a dress that best suits her coloring. Never put a child under eight
in dark colors or black. I only suggest black if they are a senior and even
then I feel you can find a better color for your contestant. 95% of judges will
score you low for bold dark colors on a child or baby. Pastel, bold corals,mint
green, tangerine,baby blues, whites, pinks, ivories, and muted tones work
best on a baby or child. If the pageant is a Christmas or Valentine's Day
theme, it is appropriate, even then, a white dress is more appropriate for
those occasions. Choose a dress that the child can wear not a dress that
overpowers your child. Most dresses will have a string hanging down from
the back of the skirt. Look for it and clip it off. Now that I have said this you
will see them everywhere.
2. If your little one is still in diapers please cover the plastic diaper with
"Pretty Panties" These are white or dyed to match her dress. It is like
your"slip" is showing to a judge if your child's raw diaper is showing. Please
cover up those plastic, cartooned ,and wet diapers. Pretty Panties can be
purchase at Belks near the socks and hair bows. They can also be
purchased at the second time around shop,Kid's to Kid's, at the Mall Of
Georgia behind Chucky Cheese.
3. A happy, fun loving, personable contestant will win out over a pretty face
every time. Leave any stress in the car before you enter the pageant venue.
Your child will pick up on the good vibrations and will be at her best. In turn if
you and your child are being sassy to one another others will pick up on that
negativism also.
4.If she can walk at a good pace alone --- LET HER! Judges want to see her"
personality" not how the two of you interact with each other. As soon as you
can ween yourself off the stage- DO IT!. It will be more traumatic for you than
her. If she is not ready then join her but make sure you are not an attention
queen because the judges will only see you and not your contestant. If the
stage has a dark backdrop then you should wear a dark color to blend into
the background. Look like a winner not a mother how lives through her child
and never pays attention to her appearance.
5.If you have a small baby and will be carrying her on stage, be sure to
practice holding her in the mirror. It is always sad to see an inexperienced
mother that does not know the 'Pageant Hold". The judges can not see the
child's face, her dress is covering her face, the dress is hiked up to show
skin, her legs are dangling like noodles, and she is sunk into your arms.
Remember to present her in the best position. Practice at home in front of
your mirror so you will have her in her best light and will not be fumbling
around with the baby and dress once you get in front of the judges. Hold her
close to you with the back frilly part of her dress behind her head if she is
very young. She will look like she is blooming. Make sure not to show any
bare skin. If she is older make sure the dress is not hiked up anywhere.
6. If you are going on stage with your little one, let your toddler lead you-it
shows confidence and spice. Let her personality shine through. Avoid the
OVER ACTED kiss and wave. If it Looks FAKE - It Looks FAKE. I am sure you
have all seen the child that is led around by Mom and is miserable
"Performing". She only brightens up and smiles when she is on her way off
the stage because it is over. This is her day and this is her show for two
whole minutes so let her shine and have a great time with the judges. Most
judges will smile and make a pleasant face for the contestant so they will feel
good about being on the stage.
7.Follow the rules of the house. Stay way back behind the judges. Be pleasant
when talking with other pageant parents. Be pleasant in the dressing rooms-
your stress bleeds onto other contestants. I am always told after the pageant
that so and so mother was so rude or mean. We do not allow this behavior.
Pageant directors don't want to work with a sassy mother all year long so be
on your best behavior.
If you do not handle stress with a smile and good graces then let another
person take her back stage and you get a good seat up front ready to wave
and smile at her. Also,
accept the judges decision with grace and manners. I recently attended a
pageant where the mothers of 2 contestants were upset with the judges
decision and rudely jumped up and called their daughters off the stage while
the last of the pageant was still going on! I was appalled with their childish
behavior. Do not go off stage and begin to say how your daughter should
have won. We call that, " sour grapes" or poor sportsmanship. I believe that
sour grape mothers only show others that the judges were right by not
picking a daughter of a sour grape. If your daughter had won you would
swear the judges were the smartest judges in all of pageant land. I do not
give out score sheets but am VERY HAPPY to tell you what the judges thought
of your child and her performance the next day, Just Call and we will go over
the scores, after all how can you improve if you don't know why your
daughter didn't not win? I look forward to these calls.
8. Hair is very important to the over all look of a contestant. The fuller and
more natural the better. Never have tight hair on a contestant. Never use
braids or cornrows. Never have the hair hanging over one eye. If it is short
then keep the cut clean. If it is medium length then give it some body and use
a bow to one side or another. If it is long, curl it and put half up and half down.
Very few noses can carry off a middle part! Part their hair on the left or right
unless they have a perfect nose. The more natural it looks--- the better. But
if your child has short thin hair give her some body with a product. If she is a
baby with very little hair use a matching head band with a little bow or
treasure on it. Practice before the pageant day to see which hair style looks
best on your child.
9. If you are using a makeup artist let them know that over made up will be
counted down in your child's score sheet. We are not looking for the CHINA
DOLL look. NO flippers,hair pieces, fake tan, fake eyelashes and eyeliner.
These are still our little girls so save the over dramatic look for a FULL GLITZ
pageant.
10. NEVER have hair slicked tight on a child's head with a big fake bun of
curls on the back. This look is not in keeping with a child. Many times all you
need to do is to curl it front to back with 12 or more medium to large curlers.
Wait until you get to the site to take them out. Bring a bag to put the curlers
and clamps in. After you take out the curlers have your daughter bend over
at the waist and shake her head as you pick through her hair with your
fingers. Using a brush will just "flatten" out the curl. Spray it while her head
is upside down. Wait for 1 minute for the spray to set and them let her flip
her head back up. At this point use your fingers to pick her hair into place.
Pull the curls into place with your fingers. This will give her a full natural look
and not look like a "pageant helmet head"!
11.If your daughter wins be, a gracious winner. No hooting or hollering
please. Dads control the urge to belt out "That 's my baby!" Graciously
accept the goodwill comments from others. Simply say, "Thank you" instead
of going on and on about how you won or how you thought you would not win.
Winners show grace and are tactful. Be a gracious winner. You will show
your daughter how it is done.
12. Check back with the director the following week by phone or email. The
day and night of the pageant she has hundreds of items to check off and
sometimes does not even get to meet you and your little one because she is
busy with the judges paychecks, the music for the next pageant, the
interview for the older girls, or even just eating before the next pageant
begins. Call and introduce yourself and get to know your director she is
looking forward to your year together!
13. Let others know about the pageant. Tell them about the web site. It
normally takes about 4 weeks to get the new queens uploaded. If you have
photos of the pageant please email them to Cynthia_sold_it@yahoo.com so
the director can choose to use them on the web site. The director must
waits upon the photographer to send the official photos. It is exciting for
friends and family to see your little one on the world wide web! The pageant
web site is Missmemorialday.com
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| Our Miss Memorial Day Princess All contestants, (ages birth -23 years old), that finish the pageant with excellent pageant manners will be awarded the title of Princess and receive a Princess Sash to wear during the pageant appearances. |
| READ ALL THE WAY DOWN THE PAGE FOR IMPORTANT INFORMATION THAT THE JUDGES WILL BE USING. |
| Please JOIN OUR GROUP on FACEBOOK MISS MEMORIAL DAY SCHOLARSHIP PAGEANT |