History Series / ToddlersAndTiaras

** Paisley, who wore the prostitute dress from the movie ''{{Film/PrettyWoman}}''. She was known by fans as the "prostitot" because of it. In a season 6 episode, she rips off her tear-away skirt to showcase underwear-style bottoms and garters ''and won''. She later quit pageants after a while because of the earlier controversy she and her mother were embroiled in.
** Destiny, in season 6. She had dressed as Sandy from the film ''{{Series/Grease}}'' in the 50's-themed pageant and had a very ''real'' cigarette, provided for by her mother as a prop.

The show spawned a {{spinoff}} series: ''Series/HereComesHoneyBooBoo'' centered around former contestant Alana "Honey Boo Boo" Thompson, her mother "Mama" June Thompson, and her family.

** Many mothers seem to think that they're doing their daughters a favor by putting them on TV, unaware that the ManipulativeEditing is designed to throw the entire process of pageants into the worst light possible. Carley's mother Melissa is a prime example. She whispered threats to her daughter [note]"You're going to be a very sorry girl. We are on national television. Everyone is going to see this."[/note] which were helpfully subtitled by the production team so that the entire audience could see how terrible a parent she was.

** Paisley, who wore the prostitute dress from the movie ''PrettyWoman''. She was known by fans as the "prostitot" because of it. In a season 6 episode, she rips off her tear-away skirt to showcase underwear-style bottoms and garters ''and won''. She later quit pageants after a while because of the earlier controversy she and her mother were embroiled in.
** Destiny, in season 6. She had dressed as Sandy from the film ''{{Grease}}'' in the 50's-themed pageant and had a very ''real'' cigarette, provided for by her mother as a prop.

''Toddlers & Tiaras'' is an American reality television series that aired on Creator/{{TLC}} from 2009-13, then again in 2016. The show follows the controversial world of child beauty pageants, looking closely at the pageant contestants and their families as the girls prepare to compete for the title of ''Ultimate Grand Supreme''.

The show had spawned a {{spinoff}} series: ''Series/HereComesHoneyBooBoo'', which was centered around Alana "Honey Boo Boo" Thompson, her mom "Mama" June Thompson and her family.

* AbusiveParents: Take your pick. You've got parents who obsessively favor one child over the other, parents who see nothing wrong with giving their three-year-olds (or ''younger'' kids) ''spray tans'', parents who threaten their children if they don't win, parents who are ''clearly'' trying to live out their fantasies through their kids and won't take "no" for an answer. It's enough to make one have to remind themselves not to call Child Protective Services while watching the show.
** Some of the moms under the notable controversies in the ''Where Are They Now??'' special are also clearly [[TheUnapologetic unrepentant]], equating the fans' negative reactions to being "haters", with the one girl notable for the Pretty Woman pageant outfit quitting pageants altogether.

* AttentionWhore: Some of the girls, though more often the mothers than the girls.
* BeautyContest: Beauty contests for children and, very rarely, their parents.

** Whenever a parent of a child under 3 insists that the child is the one who wants to do the pageant. Most kids that age are just learning to use the bathroom, much less understand show-business.

** On a lesser level, the producers, who claim that they are there to document, not judge. They always make sure to get the best tantrums and most outrageous parents (with a few exceptions) and always manage to paint the majority of pageantry in a grim light.
* BrattyHalfPint: Woo boy howdy, quite a bit. Thankfully though, some subvert it entirely.

** Alana "Honey Boo Boo" Thompson. After appearing on one episode, she was given her own show (''Here Comes Honey Boo Boo''), and her family appeared on another spinoff (''Mama June: From Not to Hot'').

* CoolCrown: Usually every little girl competing, even the ones who didn't win a title, receives a crown or tiara. The big winners tend to get massive crowns that don't fit on their heads.

* DeliberatelyCuteChild: One of the points of the show, if PointAndLaughShow doesn't come into play.
* DownerEnding: When one of the spotlighted girls loses, it's played as this.

* ExtremeDoormat: Juana, Mackenzie Meyers's mother. You really have no sympathy for her when she sulked about her daughter being an unholy terror.

** Another child drank "Tinker Tea", which was a similar caffeinated and sugary soda concoction.
* GenkiGirl: Alana or "Honey Boo Boo" in her season 4 debut comes off as this.
* GlobalIgnorance: Apparently nobody told the pageant authorities that Africa is a continent, not a country.
* HomeschooledKids: A family from New Jersey with two homeschooled kids, Riley and Bob, was profiled on the show. They definitely ranked among the weirdest families shown on the show. Notable for the mom saying she had the little girl dance and sing on the bar at Applebee's followed by an audible FlatWhat from a producer off-camera. Watch the clip [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyDbAx9HZCw here.]]
* ImNotHereToMakeFriends: In Season 6, both Kayla and Kailia's moms. While one of the girls thought the other was a friend and was hurt that the other girl wasn't her friend, the moms clearly '''weren't''' friends.
* IsntItIronic: In one commercial for the show, they play the Music/LadyGaga song ''Born This Way'', a song about being fine with the way you are. Meanwhile, in the commercial footage, little girls prance around with UncannyValleyMakeUp, dyed hair/hair extensions, false eyelashes, etc.
* ItsAllAboutMe: The contestant interviews at the beginning of the show introducing the girls usually contain some variation of this, said either by the contestant herself or her mother.
* {{Jerkass}}: Some of the more extreme pageant moms and/or dads are this, but notable examples include:
** Kelly and Ron Lyerly, the parents of Alycesaundra and Giavanna, the Tiara Twins. Kelly proves to be a consistent one time and time again, giving one judge TheReasonYouSuckSpeech in season 7, reappearing in season 8 without drama but returns in season 9 with a vengeance and solidifying this trope on her '''and''' her husband when they have her kids' pet goat poop all over Cambrie's side of the dressing room.
** Nikki Williams, a pageant coach to Faithlyn and a few other kids in season 7. She also proves to be an AlphaBitch '''and''' TheBully on top of it, dissing the contestants as though they're beneath her and her pageant kids. She's made notable appearances in season 8 and 9, even appearing alongside Kelly in an episode that didn't have ''either'' of them in a central role.
** Faithlyn herself in both her appearances was mostly this, due to Nikki's influence.
** Trystian, Kelsie's mom in season 8's second episode, nearly picking a fight with Carol Fleming of the California Tropics pageants and being escorted out by Fleming's husband in the same episode. It's apparently not the first time she's done that, too. She later tries a WoundedGazelleGambit after going through a breakdown upon her ejection, but the police tell her to leave, which she does, but not before [[PersonaNonGrata being banned]]. She later returns somewhat changed a few episodes later, but the changes don't stick.
** Lyric Carter's entire family in her episode. They end up being asked to leave the premises of the hotel.

** Cambrie Littlefield, full stop. While she and her Court try their best to win titles, she seems to genuinely care about her girls and at one point arranges a visit to the eye doctor for eye exams for the whole team. The Sassy Supremes coach is protective of her team as well.

* {{Narcissist}}: Everyone to one extent or the other, but special mention goes to Danielle, whose every word seems to be some variation of "I'm so pretty."
* PimpedOutDress: Sometimes to the tune of ''[[CrackIsCheaper hundreds of dollars]]'' a dress!

* RealityShowGenreBlindness: Comes in two flavors.
** The more common variant is that many mothers seem to think that they're doing their daughters a favor by putting them on TV, unaware that the ManipulativeEditing is designed to throw the entire process of pageants into the worst light possible. Carley's mother Melissa is a prime example. She whispered threats to her daughter [note]"You're going to be a very sorry girl. We are on national television. Everyone is going to see this."[/note] which were helpfully subtitled by the production team so that the entire audience could see how terrible a parent she was.
** The less common variant is when a child, usually because they are new to the pageant scene, is [[HopelessAuditionees woefully under-prepared]], and both the girl and her mother have no idea what they're doing. Given that it's easy to figure out what the pageant basics are (dress, hairstyle, makeup, and routines) just by watching a handful of episodes, it's not clear why a mom would apply to be on the show, let alone enter her kid in a pageant, without the right kind of dress or without practicing a routine.
* SeriousBusiness: To the parents, the pageants themselves. Quite often, they take it a bit too far. Multiple parents have claimed to have spent upwards of ''tens of thousands of dollars''. They could've put their kids through a year of college with that kind of cash.

* TalentContest: The plot of each show, following a group of girls and their parents preparing for and then competing in a beauty contest, typically including a specific talent competition segment.
* TroublingUnchildlikeBehaviour: For the viewers. Most of the adults profiled have no problems with painting their daughters like hookers and sending them on stage in two-piece swimsuits to dance provocatively.
** Mia, who wore the Madonna cone bra costume. Yes, really.
** Paisley, who wore the prostitute dress from the movie ''Pretty Woman''. She was known by fans as the "prostitot" because of it. In a season 6 pageant episode she ''rips off her rip-away skirt'' to showcase underwear/bikini bottom and garters ''and won''. She later quit pageants after a while because of the earlier controversy she and her mother were embroiled in.
** Destiny, in season 6. She had dressed as Sandy from the film ''Grease'' in the 50's-themed pageant and had a very ''real'' cigarette, provided for by her mother as a prop.

** The Sterling twins, from a family of five sisters, had the most obvious, and heartbreaking, example of this. The mother obviously favored one of the identical girls, flat-out stating she was prettier and looked more like her mother. Thankfully, the dad had no problem with pulling the favorite out of the pageant for acting like a brat.
** In "Me and My Pet", the mother of the Tiara Twins said "I think Alycesaundra has won something bigger than the ''other child''". She also gave Alycesaundra a cute little lamb for her routine and Giavanna got a turkey. She stated that Giavanna, "the other child", is a "mean sourpuss" with "no personality."

* WholeCostumeReference: Allyson wore a gown made to look like the [[FluffyFashionFeathers feather-trimmed]] stage [[FairytaleWeddingDress wedding dress]] that Music/{{Beyonce}} wore for a performance at the 2009 Creator/{{BET}} awards. The problem is it's practically a swimsuit with a see-through skirt attached (and just barely avoids being a ShowgirlSkirt). Additionally, the little girl is Caucasian and wanted her skin "brown" to look more like Beyonce.
** Paisley wearing Creator/JuliaRoberts' prostitute outfit from ''Film/PrettyWoman''.

* AbusiveParents: Take your pick. You've got parents who obsessively favor one child over the other, parents who see nothing wrong with giving their three-year-olds (or ''younger'' kids) ''spray tans'', parents who threaten their children if they don't win, parents who are ''clearly'' trying to live out their fantasies through their kids and won't take "no" for an answer...it's enough to make one have to remind themselves not to call Child Protective Services while watching the show.
** Some of the moms under the notable controversies in the ''Where Are They Now??'' special are also clearly [[TheUnapologetic unrepentant]], equating the fans' negative reactions to being "haters", with the one girl notable for the Pretty Woman pageant outfit to quit pageants altogether.
* AgeInappropriateDress: These pageants are loaded with them, along with age inappropriate hair and makeup.
* AttentionWhore: Some of the girls, though it was more of the mothers than the girls.

* BlatantLies: Whenever a parent of a child under 3 insists that the child is the one who wants to do the pageant. Most kids that age are just learning to use the bathroom, much less understand show-business.

** Cassadee's family prompted a whole new series too: ''Cheer Perfection'', where the moms tend to be worse because they act like they're on a soap opera.

* CoolCrown: Usually every little girl competing, even the ones who didn't win a title, receives a crown or tiara. The winners tend to get massive crowns that can't fit on their heads.

** 5-year-old Carly seemed to have a developing [[SplitPersonality split personality]]...which is quite unsettling and sad.

* DullSurprise: Pam Courmier, one of the pageant judges in a season 5 episode, is this. She combined this with {{Jerkass}} to rather sourpuss levels due to the pageant kids not looking at her, the other judges or lipsync'ing... or with moms asking her on simple advice to improve their kids' scores.

** Kelly and Ron Lyerly, the parents of Alycesaundra and Giavanna (the Tiara Twins), but eventually both divorced. Kelly proves to be a consistent one time and time again, giving one judge TheReasonYouSuckSpeech in season 7, reappearing in season 8 without drama but returns in season 9 with a vengeance and solidifying this trope on her '''and''' her husband when they have her kids' pet goat poop all over Cambrie's side of the dressing room.
** Nikki Williams, a pageant coach to Faithlyn and a few other kids in season 7. She also proves to be an AlphaBitch '''AND''' TheBully on top of it, dissing the contestants as though they're beneath her and her pageant kids. She's made notable appearances in season 8 and 9, even appearing alongside Kelly in one of the episodes that notably doesn't have ''either'' of them in a central role.

** Trystian, Kelsie's mom in season 8's second episode, nearly picking a fight with Carol Fleming of the California Tropics pageants and being escorted out by Fleming's husband in the same episode. It's apparently not the first time she's done that, too. She later tries a WoundedGazelleGambit after going through a breakdown upon her ejection, but the police tell her to leave, which she does... but not before [[PersonaNonGrata being banned]]. She later returns somewhat changed a few episodes later, but the changes didn't stick.
** Lyric Carter's entire family in her episode. ''Woo boy howdy''.

** Cambrie Littlefield, full stop. While she and her Court try their best to win titles, at the end of the day she cares about her girls and the moms despite the mama drama and so on. It's also the same with the Sassy Supremes coach and her team, as well.

* {{Narcissist}}: Everyone to one extent or the other, but special mention goes to Danielle, whose every word seems to be some variation of "I'm so pretty." God help the high school she ends up going to.

** In "Me and My Pet", Kelly Lyerly (Alycesaundra and Giavanna's mom) admitted to paying $8,000 for ''one'' dress.

** The more common variant is that many of the mothers seem to think that they're doing their daughters a favor by putting them on TV, unaware that the ManipulativeEditing is designed to throw the entire process of pageants into the worst light possible. Carley's mother Melissa is the prime example of this. Her whispered threats to her daughter ("you're going to be a very sorry girl; we are on national television; everyone is going to see this") were helpfully subtitled by the production team so that the entire audience could see just how terrible a mother she was.
** The less common variant is when a child, usually because they are new to the pageant scene, is [[HopelessAuditionees woefully under-prepared]] and both the girl and her mother has no idea what they're doing. Given that it's easy to figure out what the pageant basics are (dress, hairstyle, makeup, and routines) just by watching a handful of episodes, it's not clear why a mom would apply to be on the show, let alone enter her kid in a pageant, without the right kind of dress or without practicing a routine.
* SeriousBusiness: To the parents, the pageants themselves. Quite often, they take it a bit too far. Multiple parents have claimed to have spent upwards of ''tens of thousands of dollars''. They could've put their kids through a year of college with that kind of cash!
* SplitPersonality: Two girls so far have showcased one. "Tootie" was Madison Berg's, and she seemed weird but mostly benign. Carly, on the other hand, developed "Darla"...who has a [[TearJerker/ToddlersAndTiaras whole section]] on the TearJerker page because she's clearly a coping mechanism for handling Carly's pushy StageMom.

** Paisley, who wore the prostitute dress from the movie ''Pretty Woman''. She was known by fans as the "prostitot" because of it. In a season 6 pageant episode she ''rips off her skirt'' to showcase underwear/bikini bottom and garters ''and won''. Said skirt was designed for that. Sadly she quit pageants after a while because of the earlier controversy she and her mother were embroiled in.
** Destiny, in season 6. She had dressed as Sandy from the film ''Grease'' in the 50's wear pageant and had a very ''real'' cigarette, provided for by her mother as a prop.
* TheUnfavorite: Nearly every family with more than one kid has an obvious [[DramaticIrony (to the audience)]] favorite.
** One episode profiled a family with two children - an older girl, Alaska, and a younger boy, Braxton. After the mom raved about how beautiful and successful her son was, she had this to say about her daughter "I hope [she] can learn to accept failure."
*** When the family appeared in a second episode, Alaska was on a winning streak and Braxton wasn't even mentioned. Alaska also went through a serious case of JerkassBall upon winning a puppy, as well, near the end of season 4.
** The Sterling twins had the most obvious, and heartbreaking, example of this. The mother obviously favored one of the identical girls, flat-out stating she was prettier and looked more like her mother. What's even worse is that the family actually had ''five'' daughters, but the mother only paid attention to the one twin. Thankfully, the dad had no problem with pulling "the favorite" out of the pageant for acting like a brat.
** In "Me and My Pet", the mother of the Tiara Twins said "I think Alycesaundra has won something bigger than the ''other child''". She also gave Alycesaundra a cute little lamb for her routine and Giavanna got a turkey. She stated that Giavanna, "the other child", is a "mean sourpuss" with "no personality." (...Though if that's the case, then it ''might'' just be a result of her treating her own children like crap.)

* WholeCostumeReference: Allyson wore a gown made to look like the [[FluffyFashionFeathers feather-trimmed]] stage [[FairytaleWeddingDress wedding dress]] that Music/{{Beyonce}} wore for a performance at the 2009 Creator/{{BET}} awards. The problem is, well...[[http://justjared.buzznet.com/photo-gallery/2019131/beyonce-wedding-dress-07/ you can see the dress here]]. It's practically a swimsuit with a see-through skirt attached (and just barely avoids being a ShowgirlSkirt). The "best" part is that the girl is Caucasian and wanted her skin "brown" to look more like Beyonce.

* BreakoutCharacter: Alana "Honey Boo Boo" Thompson definitely counts as one. After appearing on one episode, the audience instantly fell in love with her due to her extremely optimistic personality and her mother's odd coupon-saving redneck lifestyle. It's gotten to the point where she now has her own show (''Here Comes Honey Boo Boo''). The ironic thing is, at first, most of the audience saw Honey Boo Boo's mom as a terrible mother (most notably feeding her child "Go Go Juice", a mixture of Mountain Dew & Red Bull, and bringing a wiffle bat to pageant practice). However, as the show demonstrated, it's clear that there are MANY ''much'' worse parents out there.
** Mackenzie Meyers probably counts, a sarcastic sharp-tongued little girl, who had Ashley Tisdale play her in a [[http://idolator.com/6028671/ashley-tisdale-funny-or-die-toddlers-tiaras-spoof Funny or Die parody of the show]].
** Also Cassadee's family prompted a whole new series too: ''Cheer Perfection'', where the moms tend to be worse because they act like they're on a soap opera.

* CreepyChild: Jaclyn, whose favorite doll (that must be in the audience to cheer for her) is a dilapidated puppet in a wheelchair. Picture Raggedy-Andy after he was disfigured and paralyzed from the waist down in a car wreck. That thing was more terrifying than [[Film/ChildsPlay Chucky]].

* DeepSouth: Quite a few of the pageant contestants are from rural areas in the South; Honey Boo-Boo is the best example.

* ExtremeDoormat: Juana, Mackenzie Meyers's mother. You really have no sympathy for her when she sulked about her daughter being an unholy terror. Though lately they've gotten better.

** There is also Alana's infamous "go-go juice", a cocktail of Red Bull and Mountain Dew, two soft drinks notorious for their high sugar and caffeine contents.
* GenkiGirl: Alana or "Honey Boo Boo" in her season 4 debut comes off as this. Some think she's cute, others think it's creepy, if comments on Website/YouTube are anything to go by.

* ImNotHereToMakeFriends: Season 6's parents in both Kayla and Kailia's moms, as while one of the girls thought the other was a friend and was hurt that the other girl wasn't her friend, the moms clearly '''weren't''' friends.

** Kelly and Ron Lyerly, the parents of Alycesaundra and Giavanna (the Tiara Twins), but eventually both divorced. Kelly proves to be a consistant one time and time again, giving one judge TheReasonYouSuckSpeech in season 7, reappearing in season 8 without drama but returns in season 9 with a vengeance and solidifying this trope on her '''and''' her husband when they have her kids' pet goat poop all over Cambrie's side of the dressing room.

* MixedAncestryIsAttractive: One family was mixed-race and the white mother says how her mixed-race children are cuter than her white daughter.

* OnlySaneMan: Occasionally, a family member, typically the contestant's father, will point out that the pageants are a waste of money or that the costumes are inappropriate.

* SeriousBusiness: To the parents, the pageants themselves. Quite often, they take it a bit too far. Multiple parents have claimed to spent upwards of ''tens of thousands of dollars''. They could've put their kids through a year of college with that kind of cash!

** Paisley, who wore the prostitute dress from the movie ''Pretty Woman''. She was known by fans as the "prostitot" because of it. In a season 6 pageant episode she ''rips off her skirt'' to showcase underwear/bikini bottom and garters ''and won''. Said skirt was designed for that. Sadly she quit pageants after awhile because of the earlier controversy she and her mother were embroiled in.