London - With her long blonde hair and pretty pink dress, she looked a picture of childhood innocence.
Then came the lipstick, the make-up and the tight-fitting swimsuit.
By the time they had finished with Ocean Orrey she might have stepped out of the pages of a fashion catalogue.
But Ocean – crowned ‘Most Beautiful’ in a toddler and under-12 beauty pageant – is only four. And while one hand is on her hip as she sashays down the catwalk, the other is clutching a cuddly toy.
Once confined to the US, the highly competitive world of children’s beauty pageants has now reached Britain, and Ocean was among more than 40 children battling to be the most beautiful at what organisers called the “biggest and best” event of its kind in the UK.
Despite her tender years, Ocean might be considered something of a veteran given that the ages of other contenders for the Miss Glitz Sparkle crown could be counted in months rather than years.
One, sporting eyeshadow, make-up and fake tan, was not yet two. Another, modelling a frilly bikini, was three. At seven months, a little girl in fairy outfit was unable to stand without support from her mother.
The US-style contest at a Lincolnshire hotel on Sunday included a beauty parade in front of an audience of adults and a “Hollywood star” round in which the children dressed as movie icons.
While organisers hailed the pageant as a great success, last night child welfare groups criticised it for encouraging the “over-sexualisation” of young girls.
Claude Knights, director of child protection charity Kidscape, described the pageants as a “disturbing trend”, adding: ‘It’s impossible for some of these kids to be giving their consent to wearing swimwear and pseudo-evening dresses as well as fake eyelashes and spray tans.”
But Ocean, who wants to be a Disney princess when she grows up, happily allowed her mother Bianca Alsop, a 26-year-old sales manager, and grandmother Denise Alsop, 49, to make her up for the contest. Her brothers, 18-month-old twins Milan and Madrid, also took prizes in the competition.
“It’s their first pageant and they all loved it,” Miss Alsop told the Daily Mail. “When you think your child is perfect, you want to show them off. Ocean absolutely loves competing, but the twins don’t really know what’s going on so it’s for my own personal satisfaction.”
Responding to the criticism levelled at the pageants, she said: “The children who take part are a different breed. They are kids who like the limelight. We’ve got dull, old-fashioned, apron-wearing mothers making their comments, but no one criticises them because their children are boring.”
Miss Alsop, who lives with partner Lee Orrey in Boston, Lincolnshire, said it preparing for a pageant took time and money.
“I think I spent about £500 on outfits for all three of them,” she added. “Ocean has to have bronzer on her shoulders, body glitter and then full make-up. Her hair has to be curled and the outfits have to be pressed and sewed. But lots of the mothers make far more effort than we did. There were kids wearing fake hair and fake nails.”
Elsewhere at the Pride of Lincoln Hotel, where rooms are offered for £25 a night, three-year-old Tia Wilkinson sat in an Upsy Daisy nightshirt as her hair was curled – before posing on stage in a ruffled bikini.
Later, after showing off her catwalk pout in another outfit, she was crowned as one of the winners. It was the 14th event she had entered over 18 months.
Mother Becky, 29, from Burnley, Lancashire, said: ‘She obviously didn’t choose to do it but she enjoys it. She wears a bikini if she goes to the swimming pool and you don’t know who’s there, so it’s just the same as that.’
One of the youngest entrants was 20-month-old Hollie Young, who has competed in pageants since the age of six months.
Mother Christine Greenhouse, a 28-year-old dance teacher from Sunderland, said: “She thinks she is a princess because she has that many crowns at home.”
She explained Hollie wore eyeshadow “because other girls had it and she wanted it”. Meanwhile, twins Starr and Stella Moss, six, wore outfits costing nearly £1,800 and came second and third respectively in their group.
Mother Roxy Moss, a 24-year-old personal assistant who was at the pageant with husband Simon, 28, said: “The girls love it. I just think people who criticise pageants haven’t got a life.”
Pageant organiser Leanne Woodall, 32, said she had received no negative feedback about the event. She added: “Until you’ve been to one, you have no idea how much the kids love it.” - Daily Mail