Stacy, 13, already has her sights on better things. It just wrecks their feet and back." She would prefer stricter rules. "But kids that age wearing heels makes no sense. "To feel prettier." "These contests are fine, providing they don't go too far," says her mother, Estelle, an educational assistant from the outskirts of Paris. "I wanted to give it a try a year ago because people kept saying I was fat," she says. Nina, 12, in a pink, flounced skirt looks almost an infant in her category.
"At that age, they're almost adults," Le Parmentier claims without batting an eyelid.
High heels replace the ballet pumps and faces are clearly made up. Dresses are darker, shorter, more body-hugging. The atmosphere changes when the 12- to 17-year-olds take the stage. Some strike poses, for a laugh others are more serious. In the stifling heat the young girls stalk up and down the catwalk. "Ms Jouanno makes out we'll turn into prostitutes. "Please leave us alone to live out our dreams," Barbara pleads. After a song to launch the proceedings, compere Michel Le Parmentier urges the media covering the event to check behind the scenes that there is no make-up and no high heels, "in keeping with our ethical charter".īarbara, 13, last year's Miss Junior Teen, steps up with a message for MPs who are due to debate a bill on gender equality at the end of November and decide whether the "Mini-Miss" amendment, tabled by senator Chantal Jouanno, is voted into law. "They've been preparing for this for so long, parading in front of the mirror, and now it's the big night, the opportunity of a lifetime," Caroline adds. Their mothers add: "If their marks aren't good there's no contest." But surely they are a bit young to be courting failure? "It's tough when you lose, but that's life. Laura is also a motocross enthusiast and wants to be a lawyer. "We're not only judged on appearances, but also the way we walk," Laura says. This is what Camille, Marie and Laura love: playing at being a princess, making new friends. We are treated to a firework display of brightly coloured robes, tulle, feathers, fake gems, fabric flowers and glittering hairdos. A few fathers and brothers are hanging around on the sidelines. In the auditorium the mothers have turned into dressers, and their daughters into princesses. It makes a good outing." Caroline, a housekeeper, agrees: "Here, I get to see people." The kids get gifts and we all end up at McDonald's. "With a day out at a contest we get to see friends, have a laugh and a chat. "I work nights in a drug factory," Myriam explains. They are the ones who started the whole thing, to keep up with their friends. But the dresses are home-made and the girls are pleased.
"Up there it costs €5 to €6, here it's €39." Including the petrol, it is quite an outlay. "The price isn't the same," Myriam points out. "This isn't America." The girls average one contest a month, generally in the north of France where they are commonplace. "The people who did that have never been to a contest," Caroline protests. Such events allegedly encourage the "hypersexualisation" of young girls, making them attach too much importance to their appearance.
Myriam and Caroline are wondering what got into the upper house of the French parliament last month when it passed an amendment banning beauty contests for under-16s. Now the girls are waiting in an alley in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, along with about 100 other competitors, for the start of the Mini-Miss Model France 2013 contest (five to 11 years) and its counterpart, the Miss Junior Teen France (12 to 17 years). In their cases they have three long red and black flamenco-style dresses with frills and sequins. They left home in northern France at 8.30am on a Saturday with Marie, 10, the elder sister, their friend Laura, 11, and her mother Caroline. "Camille, mind your hair!" her mother cautions. Myriam's seven-year-old daughter is leaning against the wall, at the risk of crushing her blonde locks, curled and lacquered this morning.
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