Beau Bailey’s mother said she doesn’t see ‘what the big deal is’ after parents criticised her for sexualising her daughter (pictured)
A mother has defended her decision to help her seven-year-old daughter win a beauty contest by letting her dress up as, the winner of ITV2’s Love Island and ex-nightclub dancer, Amber Davies, who the little girl is ‘obsessed’ with.
Footage of Beau Bailey’s Love Island-themed display at the pageant was shot by her proud mother, Anita Moss, who said she doesn’t see ‘what the big deal is’ after other parents criticised her for sexualising her daughter.
Other youngsters at the Southern Beauties contest in Lee-on-the-Solent, Hampshire, copied routines from burlesque movies Moulin Rouge and Showgirls.
Finance manager Miss Moss, 32, from Southampton, said: ‘A paedophile will be attracted to children whether they’re in pageants, swimming pools or wherever.
‘I’m doing nothing wrong and anyone who says I am is just jealous.’
For Beau’s Love Island routine, which won the pageant, netting her a tiara as a prize, the schoolgirl wore a revealing bandage bikini like one worn by Amber on the show.
The skimpy, midriff-baring two-piece was made specially for her performance. Beau also wore a full face of make-up, hair extensions and had a spray tan the night before.
Revealing: For Beau’s Love Island routine, which won the pageant, netting her a tiara as a prize, the schoolgirl wore a bandage bikini (pictured) like one worn by Amber on the show
Skimpy: The baring two-piece was made specially for Beau’s performance (above). Beau also wore a full face of make-up, hair extensions and had a spray tan the night before
Beau’s routine began with her posing provocatively on a sun lounger holding her iPhone. Next, a text message announcing her ‘task’ was read out over a tannoy, just like in the show.
Beau pouted as the voiceover said: ‘Girls, it’s time to drop it like it’s hot in today’s challenge, Battle Of The Booties.’
The primary schoolgirl then threw down her phone and danced to a soundtrack of music mixed with audio of Amber and the other Love Island girls discussing which boys they are attracted to in the reality show villa.
Beau’s audience watched and cheered as she turned her back and shook her bottom.
Putting her face on: Miss Moss spends up to £3,000 a time on Beau’s outfits and claimed she has splashed £20,000 since Beau, an only child, began competing aged two
Beau wore a crossover swimsuit and had a spray tan to enter the Southern Beauties contest
Last night children’s charities urged parents not to put their children through contests like Southern Beauties. Kidscape boss Lauren Seager-Smith said: ‘There should be no place for a competition like this.’
The ITV2 post-watershed reality show regularly screened contestants having sex. This year’s winners Amber Davies and Kem Cetinay are thought to have romped 12 times on the show.
Raunchy pictures were uncovered in July of Amber posing in lingerie as part of her former job as a dancer in the plush circus themed nightclub, Cirque le Soir, in central London.
Beau avidly watched recorded episodes before she went to school and became ‘obsessed’ with Amber, her mother said.
Miss Moss, (pictured left with Beau on the shoulders of her supportive step-father, Jamie Johnson) who runs her own Southampton-based pageant company, Teenie Pageants, said: ‘Beau wants to be an actress so doing things like this is going to come in everyday life for her’
Miss Moss, 32, said: ‘It wasn’t like I was making her sit there and watch it.
‘Every morning before school she would get up and put on one of the recorded versions. She’s been watching them over and over again.
‘She loves Amber so she wanted to be her in her latest pageant.’
Miss Moss, who runs her own Southampton-based pageant company, Teenie Pageants, said: ‘Beau wants to be an actress so doing things like this is going to come in everyday life for her.
‘I’m just preparing her for what she wants to do in life.’
She added: ‘I worry about paedophiles anyway, not just because of the pageants. I protect her as much as I can. I’m her mother and I don’t want any harm to come to her.
Explicit: The ITV2 post-watershed reality show screened contestants having sex. This year’s winners Amber Davies and Kem Cetinay (above) romped 12 times on the show
Raunchy pictures (above) were uncovered in July of Love Island’s Amber posing in lingerie as part of her former job as a dancer in the plush circus themed nightclub, Cirque le Soir, in central London. Schoolgirl Beau avidly watched recorded episodes before she went to school and became ‘obsessed’ with Amber, her mother said
‘But I’m not going to not put stuff up on social media because of a weirdo who wants to go online and has a problem. If we get that bad then what’s the world coming to? It’s just over-reacting.’
Miss Moss spends up to £3,000 a time on Beau’s outfits and claimed she has splashed £20,000 since Beau, an only child, began competing aged two.
She said: ‘Beau’s competed in America four times so I know exactly what we’re doing. She had a spray tan the night before then had to get up at 6am to wash it it all off.
‘I do her make-up. She wore a wig which was styled the night before.
‘We practised 24 hours a day for about three days. In the last year she has always come first, second or third.
‘I try to do things that are going to work for her personality and be a bit controversial. I’ve been in this game a long time and you have to be a little bit out of the box for people to go “wow”. A boring old Cinderella just doesn’t work. They need that edge.’
Expensive: Miss Moss spends up to £3,000 a time on Beau’s outfits and claimed she has splashed £20,000 since Beau, an only child, began competing aged two. She said: ‘Beau’s competed in America four times so I know exactly what we’re doing’
Kem Cetinay and Amber Davies visit a Boux Avenue store to launch Amber’s lingerie campaign
Miss Moss admitted receiving criticism from other mums who say she is sexualising her daughter.
She said: ‘They don’t bother me at all. Beau has a similar character to Amber. If that kind of personality is in someone, you just can’t change it.’
Beau was one of 40 youngsters who paid the £60 entry fee to take part in the Southern Beauties contest.
Its boss Clare Hunter insisted entrants were encouraged to perform ‘age appropriate’ acts. She said those who do not do so have points docked but are allowed to continue.
She added: ‘I felt Beau’s routine was great. She is the sassiest little girl and she did brilliantly to win.’
Last night an NSPCC spokesman said: ‘We would always encourage parents to carefully consider what’s appropriate for their child and the impact of placing them in a potentially sexualised setting.’
‘Immoral’: Beau’s audience watched and cheered as she turned her back and shook her bottom. A child psychologist said it was ‘immoral’ that Beau took part in the pageant
Child psychologist, Dr Amanda Gummer, said she is concerned by beauty pageants which ‘teach children to prioritise superficial values’.
She added: ‘To objectify beauty like that encourages children to fixate on the unobtainable or certainly something unsustainable. We should be teaching children about what is inside and about developing your character, which gets better as you age.’
Dr Gummer even said it was ‘immoral’ that Beau took part in the pageant.
She said: ‘A seven year old should not be watching Love Island, it is completely inappropriate viewing. To ask a prepubescent seven year old to take part in a Love Island beauty pageant is immoral.
‘At seven years old children need adults to be supporting them in developing healthy, holistic, well-being attitudes and nurturing them, not exposing them to inappropriate content.’