A Star is Born (well, maybe)

My daughter, the babe, will be four in August. In her few, short years on planet earth, she has already begun to make her mark. At barely one, she took home Mini-queen title for the Miss American Starlet Pageant. It was a total fluke thing when we did this. Hubby stumbled upon the ad in the paper (while waiting for his oil change), then I called to get more information. When the information arrived, I found out that the registration fee was 75 big ones. Well, I wasn't about to pay that to put a toddler into a pageant. Turns out, everybody I knew wanted to sponsor her. The $75 was raised in about 3 days. So, off to the pageant we went. There were some new mommies, like me, and some obsessive, crazy mommies. I swore right then and there that I would never become the latter. Those women were nuts! No child should look like Tammy Faye Baker or feel like they're failures because they aren't pretty enough. What the hell? The division she fell in was judged purely on natural cuteness, thank God.

Anyway, she took home the title, a crown, a sash and a huge trophy. The next year, she took home the title of princess. This past year, I put her in the Sunburst pageant and she won that too. I'm telling you all of this because I want you to understand that my child's beauty isn't just a mother's opinion and blinded love. People who know beauty as a profession see my child as gorgeous (without make-up or props).

A co-worker's wife is the photographer for a very large scrapbooking company based here. She asked my little one to pose for their catalog. It was a full-on photo session and the babe just ate it up. The photographers encouraged me to get her an agent, so I began investigating the BBB for the best agencies in SLC. I found the names of the top three and started communications with one of them. Most won't take on a child younger than six, but this one takes them at four.

Yesterday, hubby was at the store and a woman stopped him about the babe. She raved about how beautiful she was and how she'd be perfect for a commercial they were shooting today. Now, the babe isn't quite four yet and reading isn't an option. Everything would have to be memorized and she wondered if that was a possibility with someone so young. She must have changed her mind because I didn't hear back from her, but it got the fire going again about getting the babe into this business.

With all the stories we hear about child stars gone bad, I was a bit hesitant; however, I remembered something about those stories that I kept hearing: the parents lived lavishly and drained their children dry. Those who succeeded, had stable home lives and I believe that makes all the difference in the world.

I'm a good and fair mother. She has a good and fair father. The babe already has a savings account (and has since she was a few months old). Everything she made would go there (unless, of course, she "blew up" and mom and dad became her manager's). But, even still, neither myself nor my husband are lavish people. We'd want her to have a childhood (I definitely would, because I thought mine was the best). I'd want her to have normal school and normal friends. Again, I don't know if she would even be huge. She could be just a great, local talent that gets called from time to time and that would be fine with me. Anyway, this has all been on my mind for the past couple of days, so I thought I would share.