Beauty pageants for children have grown increasingly popular since the reality television show "Toddlers and Tiaras" first premiered. Beauty pageants promote bad eating habits, which can lead to eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. Studies show that former childhood pageant contestants are 60 percent more likely to have issues of body dissatisfaction by the age of 10 (Cartwright 1). These disorders are common in young pageant contestants due to their constant crash dieting; a method of losing weight by "cutting calories drastically and often restricting an entire food group, resulting in rapid weight loss (Oz 1). Many women with eating disorders learned at an early age to value thinness and perfection (Cartwright 1). By teaching children this, we are only setting ourselves up for a more distraught generation. Beauty pageants are a way of exploiting young girls. This "issue of sexualization of young girls in beauty pageants"  (Murphy 1) has caused much controversy all over the world. "France voted to ban child beauty pageants for kids under the age of 16" (Wallace 1). These children are practically being robbed of their childhood and forced into adulthood. Young girls who are under the age of 12 are perceived to be woman! They are dressing in "skimpy attire and are covered in makeup. This is feeding the sex industry..." (Schultz & Murphy 3). Pageants are exposing the children to the public. Girls under the age of 10 have been found on adult websites. These contests are pushing girls to the extremities of sexuality long before their time. disguised as sexual candy in a competition over appearance, beauty and seduction.  Although most parents whose children participate in pageants believe that these contests are helping to raise their child's self-esteem, they are actually destroying it. Those who win, their self-esteem may increase, but not everyone can win. Beauty pageant contestants are judged by their hair, s