Some shows don’t age well. Toddlers & Tiaras, the TLC reality series that followed child beauty pageant contestants and their families, is different in that it was controversial even while it was on TV. Despite the controversies, the show ran in its original form from 2009 to 2013 and was followed by a sequel in 2016. Though the show ended several years ago, some of its cast members are still grappling with the more challenging aspects of being on a show like Toddlers & Tiaras.
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One former beauty pageant contestant recalls being on a diet when she was 7 years old.
Several former pageant contestants and their moms talked about their experience on the show in a recent episode of The Dark Side of Reality TV. One former Toddlers & Tiaras star, EverRose Sims, appeared on the show when she was just a little girl — yet she was already on a diet. In retrospect, she believes this is exactly why she was selected to appear on the show.
“I’m pretty sure the only reason they picked me was because they knew, ‘Wow, she’s 7 and she’s on a diet. Let me follow her,'” EverRose said.
They really did follow her, and she still struggles to eat in front of people because of it.
EverRose admitted that she continues to have “a bad relationship with food.” The fact that “the whole world watched [her] eat” on TV certainly didn’t help, she explained.
“During the filming, I mean, I just noticed that they were following her and just videoing everything she would put in her mouth,” her mom, Kayla Sims, said, per Entertainment Weekly.
After having her eating habits scrutinized on Toddlers & Tiaras, EverRose still struggles to eat in front of people. “As an adult, I can’t eat in front of people because I’m self-conscious about it, cause the whole world watched me eat,” she explained. “Even to this day, I struggle with my relationship with food.”
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'I really felt like that TLC was trying to stir the drama,' her mom said.
In a clip from the Dark Side of Reality TV, her mom said she believes TLC purposely searched for controversial things that would catch viewers’ attention.
“I really felt like that TLC was trying to stir the drama to make more money off of the show,” she said. “It’s like they were searching for things, little cues that would make it I guess have more views.”
One mom described receiving creepy messages about her daughter.
Part of the reason Toddlers & Tiaras was so controversial was because people worried that the show sexualized young girls. By putting their children on the show, parents seemed to prioritize fame over their children’s safety, some have argued. One mom admitted that, at times, she did have concerns about her daughter’s safety.
Pageant mom Darci McHenry said she started dealing with increasingly creepy interactions with grown men on social media while her daughter, Devin, was on Toddlers & Tiaras.
Comments on Devin's fan pages made her worry about her family's safety.
“The comments were getting crazier and crazier,” Darci said. “Things like comments from grown men and, ‘Oh my god, look at that sexy thing’ and, ‘I can see right through the bodysuit.'”
Darci would block these men on social media, but after seeing disturbing comments like these, she started having more concerns about safety and sometimes felt like cars were driving by their house very slowly. “I really started to step back and be like, ‘Oh, no. Like, ‘Gee, maybe I did misstep here. Maybe this is going to haunt us a little bit.”
