How JonBenet Ramsey’s Loss of life Modified Baby Magnificence Pageants

Baby magnificence pageants have lengthy been part of American tradition, notably within the South. Those that assist these kinds of contests say they don’t seem to be nearly magnificence, being judged or successful prizes — although there have all the time been loads of prizes to go round — however about being a accountable, gifted and well-behaved woman. A backlash naturally occurred within the wake of the 1996 homicide of 6-year-old pageant contestant JonBenet Ramsey. That’s when Lise Hilboldt-Stolley investigated this advanced, usually contradictory world in a time earlier than social media and reveals like Toddlers & Tiaras. This deep dive into the pressured-filled, misunderstood world of kid pageants, from the February 1999 difficulty of Good Housekeeping, is brilliantly reported and deeply humane. — Alex Belth, Hearst archivist

There’s one thing completely different about Thumper Gosney. Enjoying within the pool on the Atlanta Airport Marriott, the 8-year-old strikes with a dancer’s grace, her waist-length hair spreading like seaweed round her. She’s a magnet for youthful youngsters: Two little ladies sporting water wings float round her, and the three type a spontaneous household.

Thumper (actual title: Leslie) shows confidence and independence, qualities her mom is keen to domesticate. Susan Gosney and her husband, Gary, are older mother and father — Thumper’s three sisters are already of their 20s — and so they need their youngest to flourish on her personal.

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Actually, Thumper was fairly shy, in response to her mom. However that was earlier than the pageants. At age 5, Thumper visited a county truthful close to the Gosneys’ hometown of Temple, TX, the place a magnificence competitors is held every year. Captivated by photos of the glowing crowns and ornate clothes worn by the earlier yr’s winners, Thumper begged her mom to let her enter. Susan agreed. “I purchased her a lovely gown,” Susan remembers. “However I did every part unsuitable. I put her hair up in a bun, actual tight, to indicate off the gown. I wetted it, actual slick. She appeared like a peeled grape in that large gown.”

Thumper went on to lose her first 5 pageants. “I didn’t care,” she says now. “They had been enjoyable. I acquired to make new buddies.” Inside a few years, she had gained numerous state titles and had moved on to nationwide competitions.

Thumper, Susan and Susan’s mom, Jerry, are in Atlanta for the Common/Southern Allure Nationwide Pageant. (Gary, a veterinarian, could be right here, too, if it didn’t imply shutting down his animal clinic for the weekend and lacking the Sunday college class he’s taught for 27 years.) Allure, because the pageant is understood, has been round for 16 years and is likely one of the best. Contestants vary in age from underneath a yr to twenty-something and are available from all around the nation. “Everybody is aware of it’s arduous to win,” says Susan. “You’re competing with the cream of the crop.”

The Gosneys have arrived a day early to provide Thumper an opportunity to chill out, whereas Susan will get her daughter’s closets prepared. Allure requires elaborate outfits for every of its classes, and households usually transport trunks of drugs in vans and Winnebagos. However the Gosneys dwell too distant to drive, so Susan carried Thumper’s two fanciest pageant clothes on the aircraft in an enormous Rubbermaid plastic field, alongside together with her irreplaceable submissions for the image competitions, Photogenic and Portfolio. She packed a rolling footlocker for the remainder of Thumper’s costumes and a black case for make-up and three units of scorching rollers.

“That’s all Thumper’s,” Susan says with delight, pointing to her daughter’s tresses. “Most of those ladies can be sporting hair extensions. We’re utilizing false eyelashes, although. You get the identical impact with mascara, however false eyelashes are simpler on the eyes than 14 coats of mascara. You simply drop them on.”

Thumper has emerged from the pool and is launching into the routine she’ll do for the modeling competitors. She flings a towel — substituting for a cape — over her moist shoulder, spins a number of occasions and with a whoosh drops the towel to her forearm. She catches it completely.

It was on this resort, in Atlanta, that Thumper Gosney met JonBenet Ramsey, 5 months earlier than the gorgeous blond 6-year-old was discovered murdered within the basement of her Boulder, CO, house on December 26, 1996. The ladies had been competing in the identical age group on the Sunburst Worldwide Pageant, although JonBenet was one thing of a novice, having competed solely in native Colorado contests.

Susan first seen JonBenet within the pageant e-book. “Whenever you get to a pageant, you look to see who your competitors is,” Susan say. “I bear in mind saying, ‘That’s one lovely youngster.’ So many youngsters seem like cookie-cutter cutouts. Their households rent the identical hair and make-up individuals. However she was naturally attractive. And she or he was brand-new.”

A newspaper web page following the homicide of JonBenet Ramsey.

JonBenet was transfixed by Thumper’s expertise routine, Susan remembers, a rendition of a Patsy Cline quantity entitled “She’s Obtained You.” Enjoying a scorned girlfriend, Thumper yanked varied objects — together with love letters, data, even a pair of junior golf golf equipment — out of her night robe. “JonBenet needed to know the way she acquired all that stuff in her gown,” says Susan.

Thumper and JonBenet turned buddies and performed collectively. The Gosneys discovered JonBenet to be candy, quiet and unaffected. Patsy Ramsey, her mom, although principally pleasant, at one level turned standoff-ish. The Gosneys had been intrigued by JonBenet’s black-and-white costumes (most pageant clothes are in vibrant colours) and requested Patsy about her dressmaker. “She gave brief solutions,” Susan remembers, “as if we had been attempting to steal her concepts.”

When JonBenet died, the Gosneys had been surprised. Thumper despatched flowers to her little buddy’s funeral. After which every part started to alter.

Pageants celebrating feminine magnificence and allure have been fixtures at festivals and festivals in america because the nineteenth century. However their rise in recognition in all probability dates to 1954, when the Miss America pageant was first broadcast on tv. Susan Gosney remembers the primary time her household noticed the present. “You appeared as much as Miss America,” she remembers. “She had poise, she was lovely. She was the perfect girl.”

Little ladies started dreaming of sooner or later changing into Miss America. And a few pageants needed to provide them a head begin. In 1960, a Miami broadcaster hosted the primary regionally televised pageant for youngsters, Little Miss Universe. By the Nineteen Eighties, youngster pageants had develop into an inextricable a part of life within the South, proliferating by phrase of mouth, with none nationwide promoting or publicity. Youngsters turned “names” on the circuit however remained unknown outdoors the pageant world.

If not for JonBenet’s homicide, that world may need thrived in relative anonymity. However within the media frenzy following her loss of life, pageants had been condemned, even demonized. People had been shocked by photographs of little ladies in bejeweled clothes imitating grown-up magnificence queens. And in a time of heightened concern about youngster abuse, pageant kids had been seen as having been robbed of their innocence by being taught to behave in sexually provocative methods. Consequently, newcomers had been scared away from the contests and enrollment plunged. On the similar time, pageant households out of the blue discovered themselves hounded by reporters and insulted by strangers.

At a pageant in Dallas just lately, Susan Gosney reviews, a bunch of salesmen caught sight of Thumper on her technique to the ballroom. One of many males loudly remarked, “I believe it’s appalling you power that poor youngster to put on make-up like that.” His phrases stung.

“I’m not a pushy stage mom,” Susan insists. “My daughter loves our weekends collectively, loves dressing up, loves doing her expertise routine … Pageants didn’t kill JonBenet,” she provides emphatically. “A horrible individual did.”

Faye DeMatteo, the mom of Rayanna, one among final yr’s winners at Allure, says that her household needed to change their telephone quantity twice to keep away from reporters. She refused to speak to any of them and was outraged by feedback made by Geraldo Rivera on his TV present: “He stated that when he sees a 6-year-old in a swimsuit, he sees intercourse. Properly, that’s his notion. After I see a 6-year-old in a swimsuit, I see a 6-year-old in a swimsuit.”

Pageant mothers imagine the media look by a distorted lens. And so they cost that the heaviest criticism comes from individuals who have by no means even been to youngster magnificence pageants. After psychologists and a former Miss American appeared on tv to speak concerning the emotional harm inflicted on pageant youngsters, Faye and different moms sprang into motion. “We referred to as psychological institutes throughout the nation,” she says, “even the Mayo Clinic. There aren’t any research.* They’ll’t produce something to show hostile results.”

Time and again, pageant moms insist that their kids need to take part and should not subjected to the perfectionist pressures imposed on youngster actors or athletes. Certainly, their conduct in competitors may be charmingly unpredictable. “When Rayanna was 3,” Faye remembers, “she walked downstage towards the judges, bent down, and yanked off her footwear. ‘These footwear harm,’ she introduced. Then she set the footwear down, completed modeling, blew a kiss — and nonetheless gained the highest title.”

Among the regulars say that pageants assist younger ladies the best way allure faculties as soon as did. “Folks misunderstand pageant youngsters,” argues Francis Clinton, grandmother of two contestants at Allure. “They’ve good manners, excessive shallowness and so they know the right way to act in public. You’ll be able to go right into a restaurant and see a desk of pageant youngsters consuming quietly, surrounded by rowdy, badly behaved youngsters far and wide.”

Pageants could also be “politically incorrect,” as Faye notes, however they’re additionally freed from such scourges as medication, alcohol and gangs. And apart from, she provides, “There are loads worse issues you could possibly topic your youngster to than spending time together with her.”

After JonBenet was killed, some pageant households started worrying concerning the security of their kids. “If individuals talked to you within the elevator, you’d get paranoid,” says Diana Pote, mom of Allure contestant Alexandra. That concern has receded, however not the remarks. “I had one woman say [about my daughter], ‘Oh, that poor child.’ It made me livid.” Incidents like these have made pageant households extra cautious, although. Now moms scrub their daughter’s faces and take down their hair as quickly as a contest is over. And the ladies themselves have stopped telling schoolmates what they do on weekends. Pageants have develop into a secret shared solely with pageant buddies.

Allure registration begins Friday round midday, as a line varieties outdoors the Marriott ballroom. Faye DeMatteo, sporting a red-and-white polka dot outfit that matches her daughter’s, greets everybody and fingers out Allure T-shirts.

Seated behind the registration desk is Darlene Burgess, who based Allure together with her husband, Jerry, in 1982, partly as a result of their daughter, Becky, liked to compete. Becky is now 27 and has a 4-year-old daughter who’s additionally on the circuit. Darlene spends time with every applicant, answering questions and giving recommendation about which pictures to submit. “Not this one,” Darlene tells a mom. “We don’t do swimsuits anymore, and she or he’s acquired shadows underneath her eyes.” A nice-faced girl with a lilting Arkansan accent, Darlene has the air of a rustic physician. “This one’s a cutter,” she says.

In 1997, Darlene and Jerry say they misplaced greater than $25,000 on Allure, as paid entries dropped from 200 to 68. “We didn’t get any infants in any respect,” says Darlene. One other casualty is Allure’s pageant e-book, which as soon as attracted greater than 100 pages of advertisements from native companies. In 1997 and 1998, solely a handful of advertisements had been bought. The variety of entrants stays low, however the Burgesses have diminished the quantity of their money awards and determine they’ll break about even.

Loyal pageant households are undeterred by the dangerous publicity and proceed to assist what they see as a wholesale household exercise. Says Hugh Roberts, the doting grandfather of Allure contestant Ashlee Golden, “I’ve seen individuals act uglier at Little League baseball video games [than] at pageants.”

However Little League has acquired to be cheaper: Entry charges for Allure now begin at $395, with further fees for particular classes like Portfolio and Expertise. It’s attainable, with a number of submissions, to spend greater than $1,000 simply to enter. Then there are the pageant clothes, which vary from $300 to a number of thousand {dollars} every. Hairstyling and make-up prices for the two-and-a-half-day pageant vary from $175 to $350. And to organize for the occasion, many kids take modeling classes with a coach, costing as much as $85 per hour. There’s additionally the expense of make-up and hairstyling for studio pictures.

To assist cowl prices, many pageant mother and father work as hairdressers, make-up artists, costume designers or modeling coaches. Susan Gosney runs a retailer in Temple the place she sells cribs, kids’s garments and pageant clothes; a former dance instructor, she additionally coaches kids and designs garments.

Since Thumper started competing, she’s gained greater than $20,000 in U.S. financial savings bonds. However Susan doesn’t need to take into consideration what the household has spent — and she or he’s grateful her husband doesn’t ask.

It’s Friday afternoon, and the expertise competitors is about to start within the brightly lit, closely chilled ballroom. No tickets are bought on the door, and no strangers are in the home — simply pageant households. Thumper glides into the ballroom sporting a yellow chiffon gown that Susan has adorned with silk blooms and a cluster of pearls. Her hair, swept off her brow, cascades into an enormous flip at her decrease again, like a bond waterfall. “It takes 45 minutes simply to roll her hair,” Susan says.

Three judges — all girls with pageant backgrounds — are seated at a protracted desk, a couple of ft from the stage, their backs to the viewers. “It’s not only a voice, but in addition about showmanship and efficiency,” explains decide Marie Mobley, a former contestant who now works as a flight attendant. “You’ll be able to have an excellent voice, however sing the unsuitable music.” And when the competitors is shut, she provides, “successful can come right down to an uneven hem, or the unsuitable accent. It may be the dad or mum’s fault.”

Expertise contestants are allowed roughly three minutes onstage; exceeding the time restrict could price factors. As the ladies take their turns, cries of “Go woman!” ring out. Cheering is very loud for contestants who’ve surmounted private obstacles: a young person from Florida who tap-dances on a foot just lately faraway from a solid; a 12-year-old who, after seven years of speech remedy, manages to fly by a tongue-twisting nation and western ditty; a 12-year-old Indian woman singing a strong rendition of “Wonderful Grace.” (The viewers is aware of that the woman was deserted as an toddler on the streets of Calcutta and adopted by a loving household from the Midwest.)

One of many ladies in Thumper’s age group belts out a Broadway tune; one other dances the can-can. There are the same old mishaps: One woman drops a baton; one other journeys on her feather boa. Lastly, it’s Thumper’s flip. Susan offers her daughter a cautious kiss, in order to not mess up her make-up, then runs to the middle of the home to root for her.

Carrying a giant smile, Thumper sings “Child Face” right into a handheld mike. She is humorous and charming, although her voice appears slightly skinny. Throughout the music, Thumper rocks her hips and factors her finger at her cheeks and chin. She is without delay coy and harmless, like a latter-day Shirley Temple. If there’s something mildly disconcerting a few youngster performing this quantity, nobody appears to note.

At Allure, the expertise competitors doesn’t rely towards Supreme Queen — an important title within the pageant — and Susan is already chopping her losses. “We’re doing this for apply,” she gives. “It’s not her regular expertise routine. Thumper is an actual newbie singer.”

For the wonder competitors Saturday morning, Thumper is made up by Toni, a reasonably, younger mom who was herself a magnificence queen and whose toddler daughter now competes. She fees Susan $250 for 2 days. “Toni makes Thumper prettier than anybody else,” says Susan.

Clothes for the Magnificence section are elaborate: Thumper’s is made with pale-peach crepe and adorned with velvet roses, clusters of pearls and rhinestone applique. It shimmers underneath the lights.

Though she is aware of some individuals are crucial of the apply, Susan has Thumper’s hair coloured. “The final 12 inches had been blond from swimming [in chlorinated pools],” she explains. “After we put it up, her roots had been so darkish, it appeared like she was sporting a false hairpiece. I had her hair highlighted to even it out. Now she seems extra pure than when she was pure.”

Susan is aware of that the children who seem joyful and spontaneous onstage have a greater likelihood of successful — which is why she’s so involved about Thumper’s smile. “Thumper just lately picked up a behavior of locking a freeze smile on her face,” Susan says. “It’s not real. I instructed her to flat-out smile. That’s what the judges need to see.”

As they head to the ballroom, Susan asks Thumper, “What do you do if you flip round onstage?”

“Monkey lips,” Thunder replies, laughing a the phrases.

Susan explains: “When she turns upstage, she throws her lips out like a monkey. It relaxes them. Then when she turns again to the judges, she has a pure smile.”

Allure’s Magnificence competitors begins with the youngest group — kids 1-year-old and underneath, helped onstage by their mother and father. Issues transfer rapidly, and it isn’t lengthy earlier than the emcee calls the older ladies.

“Do you need to say a prayer earlier than you go on?” a reasonably girl asks her 7-year-old granddaughter. Collectively they bow their heads. “The sunshine of God surrounds me. The love of God enfolds me.” Simply earlier than her entrance, the woman is reminded to “stream just like the angels.”

Now grasp of ceremonies Tim Whitmer, a good-looking former Air Drive sergeant, is crying out, “Welcome quantity 74, Thumper Gosney!” To the accompaniment of mellow synthesizer music, Thumper floats throughout the stage. Simply concerning the decide’s desk, she performs a common flip, crossing one foot over the opposite and slowly rotating — all of the whereas preserving her eyes locked on the judges. Her broad smile is dazzling: The monkey lips have labored.

“Thumper’s ambition is to be a veterinarian and a cartoonist,” Tim publicizes. Her rating is 29.7 out of a attainable 30.

After Magnificence, Thumper adjustments right into a coral pantsuit for the modeling competitors. Pageant modeling is sort of a choreographed dance, a sequence of spins, struts, sassy poses, smiles and pouts, all carried out at breakneck velocity. Thumper’s choreography was modified only a few days in the past, and Susan is anxious that her daughter’s under-rehearsed strikes could also be forgotten.

Thumper learns rapidly, in response to her mom, however she doesn’t notably wish to rehearse. At house, “she’d reasonably draw or watch the Disney Channel or play on her laptop or work on math. She’s a sofa potato.” Thumper isn’t all the time so effectively groomed, both. “For college, you may’t get a bow on her,” Susan complains, “and even get her to brush her tooth or comb her hair.” Apparently, it takes an viewers to deliver out the competitor in Thumper. “She completely loves being onstage,” Susan says. “She will’t wait to get on the market.”

Now Thumper hears her dance music and shoots throughout the stage. Although she appears slightly tentative at first, her actions are clear and exact. At one level, she swings her cape over her head, forwards and backwards, like a matador. Then, simply as she did poolside, Thumper drops the cape and catches it on her forearm.

Her scores are nearly excellent. Thumper now has an opportunity of successful Supreme.

Subsequent comes her favourite half: Western Put on. “That’s as a result of I don’t should put on pantyhose,” Thumper says with a smile, “I can put on socks in my boots.” Drenched in spangles, sequins and glitter, Western Put on costumes are amazingly intricate. In a flash, Thumper is decked out in a neon lime-green coat trimmed with dyed-to-match fox fur. The mid-thigh-length coat conceals a sleeveless high and pair of shorts — lined, hula-style with shimmering gold disks — that she reveals halfway by the quantity. Thumper assaults her routine with relish, pumping her knees and elbows and leaping within the air to click on her heels. She pulls one other high rating.

Pageant outfits are incessantly resold and refitted. Though Thumper’s Western Put on costume initially price $2,200, Susan picked it up from one other pageant mom for a lot much less.

“Folks promote their garments as a result of their kids have outgrown them, or they need a brand new look,” says Faye DeMatteo. Some moms suppose that purchasing a gown from a winner will assist their very own youngster’s possibilities.

JonBenet Ramsey’s grave on the one-year anniversary of her loss of life in 1997.

JonBenet’s mom, Patsy Ramsey, was available in the market for some custom-made costumes at an area pageant referred to as Dream Star held in Rome, GA, over Thanksgiving weekend, 1996. After placing up a dialog with Faye in a restaurant, Patsy requested concerning the outfits she was promoting. Patsy ended up shopping for Rayanna’s fancy white pageant gown, manufactured from silk organza. One month later, JonBenet was buried in it.

The DeMatteos went to the funeral. “All the ladies in JonBenet’s group from Dream Star purchased an everlasting gentle for her grave,” says Faye.

Sunday morning, there’s a prayer service within the ballroom carried out by pageant sound technician Larry Cole. “We’re all God’s kids,” Larry tells his sleepy-eyed viewers. “Simply as we watch over and information our youngsters, God watches us.”

After devotionals, Larry performs the soundtrack from Gone With the Wind, because the emcee publicizes contestants for the ultimate competitors — Southern Belle, that includes designs and materials true to the Civil Struggle interval. Women waft in sporting massive hoopskirts of velvet and silk, their capes trimmed with lace or fur, and their hair heaped in tight ringlets. Many seem like miniature Scarlett O’Haras.

Thumper appears intimidated by the costumes of her rivals. “I believe the opposite clothes are prettier than mine,” she says. “They’re so fancy.” Really, Susan has gotten compliments for the simplicity of Thumper’s outfit — a pale aqua gown with brief puffed sleeves and lacy pantaloons. Susan got here up with the design after in depth library analysis, and she or he is happy with the consequence.

When it’s her flip, Thumper strikes downstage fanning herself and twirling her parasol. Demurely, she lifts her skirt in entrance of the judges to disclose the pantaloons. Then, as she begins a common flip, her fan out of the blue falls to the bottom. This might price her critical factors, however Thumper doesn’t flinch. She continues her flip, curtsying when her again is to the judges and retrieving her fan as if the entire thing had been deliberate.

“She did it so easily,” Susan says, “the judges didn’t even discover.”

However they do discover the peach ribbon sewed into Thumper’s pantaloons. Civil Struggle kids apparently didn’t have coloured ribbons of their undergarments, and the error prices Thumper two-tenths of some extent. Susan is mortified.

On Sunday night, everybody clothes for the crowning. The ladies have modified again into their Magnificence robes and touched up their hair and make-up onstage. Orange, pink and yellow lights flash behind the silver curtain, because the soundtrack from The Bridges of Madison County performs over the loudspeakers.

There are such a lot of awards, so many alternates, it’s nearly unattainable to maintain observe. Dozens of plaques and trophies are offered to every age group, handed out by final yr’s winners, often called Allure Royalty. The emcee rushes by the names, because the viewers shouts and claps. All of the contestants appear to stroll away carrying one thing.

When Thumper’s group takes the stage, the emcee calls out her title many times, as she sweeps her division, successful Dream Woman and the coveted Nationwide Magnificence Queen. Strung with banners, Thumper is fitted with a rhinestone tiara because the viewers applauds wildly. Susan is shouting and hugging her daughter. Standing beside a five-foot-high glittering trophy, Thumper grins from ear to ear.

However it’s a 5-year-old Leslie Butler who wins Supreme Queen, scoring six-tenths of some extent forward of Thumper. Leslie has two dads who’re well-known pageant coaches — her actual father, Michael Butler, and his accomplice in enterprise and in life, Shane King. Michael was awarded custody of Leslie when she was an toddler, and he began her in pageants on the age of three months. (He carried her onstage in a pink gown, and she or he slept by the entire thing—and gained.) Now the 2 males rush to the stage and sweep Leslie off her ft.

Thumper insists she isn’t bothered by shedding Supreme Queen. And she or he notes with satisfaction that “Nationwide Magnificence Queen will get the same-size crown as Supreme. It’s simply not the identical title.” Susan, too, is happy, declaring that Thumper has gained a complete of $2,400 in financial savings bonds. However Susan continues to be upset concerning the peach ribbon. Later she is going to be taught that the judges for the Photogenic and Portfolio competitions thought Thumper was sporting an excessive amount of make-up in her photos. And that it was the make-up drawback that in all probability price her the crown.

For her half, Darlene Burgess has begun to really feel extra assured about Allure’s future. “Pageants will make a comeback,” she predicts, “As a result of all people thinks their infants are fairly.”

The lights come up within the ballroom, and the contestants revert to atypical little ladies, charging round and pestering their mother and father. They need to play with their new buddies. They need to shed their clothes, take down their hair, order room-service pizza, watch a video and manage a slumber social gathering.

Thumper desires to swim. “Come on, Mother,” she says, bouncing up and down and tugging Susan’s arm. “Let’s go proper now!” Nonetheless flushed with delight, Susan gathers up her daughter’s trophies and follows alongside.

*Editors Observe: Because the time of publication in 1999, studies have been conducted across the emotional affect of childhood magnificence pageants. Some have linked participation in childhood magnificence pageants to attainable grownup physique dissatisfaction, interpersonal mistrust and impulse dysregulation.