Toddlers & Tiaras is an American reality television series that debuted on TLC in 2009. The show follows the controversial world of child beauty pageants, looking closely at the pageant contestants and their families as the girls prepare for their pageant shows.
This show includes examples of the following tropes:
Whenever a parent of a child under three insists that the child is the one who wants to do the pageant. Most kids that age are just learning to use the bathroom, much less understand show-business.
When a child who is too young to talk comes on and the announcer does the "this is __ she is __ years old. Her favorite things are __ and __ she wants to be a __ when she grows up and her favorite person is (Stage Mom)." anyway.
On a lesser level, the producers, who claim that they are there to document, not judge. They always make sure to get the best tantrums and most outrageous parents (with a few exceptions), and always manage to paint the majority of pageantry in a grim light.
Many of the children's "talents" are this, especially the babies and younger children who can't do much more than walk around, smile, and cry.
Creepy Child: The girl whose favorite doll (that must be in the audience to cheer her) is a dilapidated puppet in a wheelchair (because the parents want to claim their four-year old understands and respects the disabled). Picture Raggedy-Andy after he was disfigured and paralyzed from the waist down in a car wreck. That thing was more terrifying than Chucky!
Extreme Doormat: Mackenzie's mother. You really have no sympathy for her when she sulks about her daughter being an unholy terror. Though, they are both getting better.
Homeschooled Kids: A family from New Jersey with two homeschooled kids was profiled on the show. They definitely ranked among the most odd families shown on the show. Notable for the mom saying she has the little girl dance and sing on the bar at Applebees and an audible Flat "What." heard from a producer off-camera.
Isn't It Ironic: In one commercial for the show, they play the Lady Gaga song "Born This Way", a song about being fine with the way you are. Meanwhile, in the commercial footage, little girls prance around with Uncanny Valley Make Up, dyed hair/hair extensions, false eyelashes, etc.
Point-and-Laugh Show: Could also be classified as a "Point and call Child Protective Services" show.
Refuge in Audacity: A bunch of scantily-clad 7-year-old girls competing for cash prizes and the title of "Ultimate Grand Supreme?" Well, okay.
Serious Business: To the parents, the pageants themselves. Quite often, they take it a bit too far. One mom even goes so far as to spend $30 K in one year on pageants alone! She could have put her kid through a year of college with that kind of cash.
Split Personality: Two girls so far have showcased one. "Tootie" was a ten year old's, and she seemed weird, but mostly benign. Carly, on the other hand, developed "Darla" who has a whole section on the Tear Jerker page because she's clearly a coping mechanism for handling Carly's pushy Stage Mom.
Stage Mom: The main point of the show. They also show stage dads, who are usually even more obsessive, as well.
For the viewers. Few of the adults profiled have issues with painting their daughters like hookers and sending them on stage in two-piece swimsuits to dance provocatively.
The little girl who wore the Madonna costume. The one with the cone bra.
Remember the girl whose mom got in trouble with viewers for letting her wear the prostitute dress from Pretty Woman? In her latest routine she rips off her skirt to showcase underwear/bikini bottom and garters. and she won. Yes, the skirt was designed for that.
One episode profiled a family with two children, an older girl and a younger boy. After the mom raved about how beautiful and successful her son was, she had this to say about her daughter "I hope [she] can learn to accept failure."
Every family with more than one kid has an obvious (to the audience) favorite.
The Sterling twins had the most obvious, and heartbreaking, example of this. The mother obviously favored one of the nearly identical girls, even flat out stating she was prettier and looked more like her mother.
Inverted with Lola, who clearly favored her aunt to her own mother.
One girl wants to wear a gown made to look like the feather-trimmed stage wedding dress that Beyoncé wore for a performance at the 2009 BET awards. The problem is, well you can see the dress here. It's practically a swimsuit with a see through skirt attached (and just barely avoids being a Showgirl Skirt). The "best" part, the girl is Caucasian, and also wanted her skin tanned to look more like Beyonce.
Another had a girl wearing Julia Robert's prostitute outfit from Pretty Woman.
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