Miss Teen USA is not inspiring young girls – it’s tearing them down

On Saturday, 51 young women aged between 15 and 19, competed for the title of Miss Teen USA 2016.

Even with the change of the swimsuit portion to a sportswear portion last month, this competition will not be receiving good press for some time.

Not only has the winner, Karlie Hay, been under fire for multiple Tweets she sent between 2013 and 2014 in which she used the ‘N’ word, but the girls who made it into the Top Five look like quintuplets, bringing up the issue of diversity.

As her old racist Tweets resurfaced, Karlie Hay quickly took to Twitter, saying

“Several years ago, I had many personal struggles and found myself in a place that is not representative of who I am as a person. I admit that I have used language publicly in the past which I am not proud of and that there is no excuse for. Through hard work, education and thanks in large part to the sisterhood that I have come to know through pageants, I am proud to say that I am today a better person. I am honored to hold this title and I will use this platform to promote the values of The Miss Universe Organization, and my own, that recognize the confidence, beauty and perseverance of all women.”

Although some people and contestants shared their support and forgiveness for Hay’s Tweets, many Twitter users are not as forgiving. They are not only angry and frustrated with Hay, but also the Miss Teen USA competition for allowing her to move forward in the pageant and to become the newest Miss Teen USA.

To add fuel to the fire, the Top Five look like sisters.

Twitter users continue to make comments about the girls, with references and pictures to various types of white-colored food. Some Tweets say the only thing the judges were looking for in the competition were skinny girls with white skin, blonde hair, and blue or green eyes.

In past years, there was also little diversity in the Top Five.

With that said, last year at the Miss USA pageant, the competition for 18 to 27-year-old women, the Top Five included four women of color. In the end, Deshauna Barber, won the competition.

Girls who are allowed to compete must be between the ages of 14 and 19. There are three stages of the competition: evening gown, sportswear, and personality interview. According to the pageant websites, each portion of the competition is judged equally.

Unfortunately, this competition can do a fair amount of damage to younger girls’ ideas and choices. Girls who watch the competition can be influenced by the weight that each portion of the competition holds. Maybe expensive dresses, makeup, and looks are more important than being respectful or a genuine person.

Furthermore, while viewing contestant profiles for the 15 to 19-year-old girls, the girls look more like they are getting ready for a Victoria’s Secret photo shoot more than high school or college. On top of that, some of the contestant photos look incredibly photoshopped, promoting false beauty standards for younger girls to follow.

Another example of how the competition and judges deemed beauty more important than personality (or brains, in this case), in 2007, Lauren Caitlin Upton placed fourth in the competition, even after her infamous answer to the question, “Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can’t locate the U.S. on a world map. Why do you think this is?”

Her answer landed her over 65 million views on Youtube and national attention:

“I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some, uh, people out there in our nation don’t have maps and, uh, I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and, uh, the Iraq, everywhere like such as, and, I believe that they should, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., uh, or, uh, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future. For our children.”

The preliminary state competitions can also eliminate some girls just by the entrance fees. In California, just to enter into the state competition, each contestant must send in a registration fee of $1,750. There are also “sponsorship fees” in which contestants collect money to cover some of the costs. According to the Miss North Carolina/Teen North Carolina and other state competition websites, the sponsorship fees can be provided by “friends and family members and [contestant’s] employers” and “hard working contestants receive material item sponsorships, such as a dress, tanning, a haircut, etc.”

Since parting ways with former owner Donald Trump, the Miss Universe company (which Miss Teen USA is a part of) has tried to better its reputation, starting with eliminating the swim suit portion which over-sexualized teenage girls. It seems, however, they may not have done enough.

This competition eliminates some girls before they can even begin, just by the amount of money that goes into it. The rules of the pageant prove that beauty is valued above intellect or morals. By weighting each portion of the competition equally, whoever wins did it with 66 percent looks and only 33 percent brains and personality. Then there are the more obvious problems of Karlie Hay’s use of the ‘N’ word in tweets (and still winning the crown), a lack of diversity, and Upton’s placement years ago in the competition, despite her answer.

Needless to say, this is definitely not a competition to inspire girls, but one to tear them down.