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Date Posted: 07:34:10 06/20/25 Fri
Author: Anonymous
Subject: Charming elite pageant out of Kentucky

I am Not new to the pageant world and I do have an expectation when it comes to attending a national pageant. The Charming Elite Pageant system is an absolute joke. After traveling more than 13 hours to the venue in Florida, we arrived at check-in our information was incomplete and not fully filled out with the information that was asked on the online application. So on the fly I had to take 20 mins and fill out our forms after I had taken an evening at home and had written very well thought out responses. All while keeping Ellee tidy and clean in her required white dress and I had all of our stuff in tow. A national pageant and nothing looked like more than a last minute hobby pageant. Photos were not displayed like she implied they would be. Not one nice photo opportunity set up anywhere or anything. The ad booklets were all in black and white and a bit blurry. The drawstring bags were cheap too. After finally finished up the forever registration, we made our way to the very laughable "dressing room". The director only rented one room the ballroom which wasn't impressive. I've seen better at the local VFW. She set up her stage in a way that the dressing room was behind the stage. The girls that arrived first were very greedy with space and the director also allowed the international and glitz contestants to have all of their stuff set up as well even though those pageants didn't start until the next day. The professional hair and make up were also set up in that space with an excess of space. A real dressing room was needed. After a long evening of optionals and registration on that first day which included 7 outfits for Ellee and 5 for myself we changed into required pajamas for a joke of a "PJ party". My girl was so disappointed. The director was so far behind she literally had a 10 minute gift exchange for the girls and then ran us off bc she had to be out of the ballroom by 8pm (she didn't even know that until that day). The "party" had no snacks no treats no nothing! We were required to bring a $5-$10 gift to exchange.That brings us to the 2nd day. At 9 am were the interviews which started late (nothing started on time). These of course were in white bottoms and an issued Charming Elite tee shirt. Well I noticed that some girls had on tank tops which were much more flattering and different from the rest. Come to find out that these contestants were very late entries and the director had added them after the numbers were issued and shirts were made. Apparently there was no actual cut off to register for this "national pageant". Interviews were unorganized and miserable too. We had to stand in line for more than an hour and was threatened over and over that if we talked much we would have points deducted and the dressingroom was closed. A dress rehearsal was supposed to start at 10 am for the main event that was to start at noon. It was so far behind we had a 15 minute rehearsal and I had to excuse myself so that I could have 15 minutes to get Ellee ready for Beauty (formal wear).
Opening number was a big ass flop. Taylor the director looked like she was dressed for a picnic and not a national pageant. It was so sloppy, unprofessional and unorganized. An absolute shit show and I was embarrassed to even be on the stage. When my girl was up ready for her introduction she didn't know what Taylor wanted from her since she was calling the girls up one at a time and that wasn't what was rehearsed. As we all know, Ellee has an excellent introduction and Taylor confused her and caused her to flop bc of the lack of organization.
After opening number, Ellee was waiting for me to get off the stage and get her out of her required pink wear and into her ballgown for the main event. The director literally gave me 5 mins and was calling for the littles. So I instantly was feeling pressured in an uncomfortable bullshit dressingroom with some disabled rude lady rolling all over everyone's stuff because she wasn't given a proper facility either. After all that was casual and state wear which as you can guess was a continuous cluster like the day before. Some of us Moms actually had a few minutes to chat and I found out that the 4-5 age group had a 6 year old competing against them. Her mom said she was a glitz girl only but the director begged her to put her in the national pageant. No fallbacks were ever posted about this pageant. All that was asked on the application were the childs ages and there was never a mention about fallbacks. Her handbook never mentioned fallbacks either. I messaged her that night and asked and she said it was posted but it absolutely was Not posted!!!
Not only in Ellee's group but in a couple groups the director seeked out Ringers and let them fallback or register late.
I woke up the next morning to a very shitty post about how some of us Moms don't understand fallbacks. I was told by another person that she was offered by Taylor the director to let her step daughter compete in a younger group than she was too so that she could be more competitive. Saturday was her glitz and international pageant at the same venue. We had group pics at 1pm and there was an advertised ice cream party. Well no party and we got one cupcake each was rushed out bc she had stuff to do. At 6:30 optionals awards were to take place and again started late. She awarded each division their awards but was running behind so she lumped Ms. Mrs. Modern and Prestige all together for one set of optional awards. Even though we all competed in separate groups. That made like 13-14 of us ranging in ages from 20 to 65 and all sizes. Well how fair is that?! I would not have spent hundreds of dollars on additional outfits and competed in optionals had I known she was making up the rules as she went along. Sunday was the main event crowning. Taylor Danielle gave this very lengthy tacky speech about banning people if anyone disagreed with any of the outcomes and was threatened to reconsider signing contracts if we didn't get a long with others. That she is running a business and she won't tolerate disgruntled contestants even if they felt treated unfairly or disrespected.
She had posted looking for a production crew but decided to do it all herself and actually asked the parents to volunteer their time and set up her stage and asked us to help break it down. She also leaned heavily on her state directors and tossed jobs onto them that they weren't ready for therefore resulted in the wrong music being played for Ellee and myself during our walks. Which is hard for a little girl to rehearse to one song for weeks then get played a different one on stage. She fired her MC during the pageant whom was doing a fabulous job. I heard that the MC was questioning the director about what she was doing and got canned (not sure on the exact facts). My girl beat all the other 4-5 year olds for the title of Grand Supreme but was outscored by the 6 yr old that slid in on a fallback that was never mentioned or written anywhere until the day of awards!!! My girl was cheated out of her prize package!
I have so much more I could tell about this shit show of a pageant system but I'll stop here. We spent thousands of dollars to be a part of this show and after we paid the rules were made up as she went along. We attend multiple pageants a month and have for 2 years and this by far our worst experience.

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