The latest shocking revelation from TLC’s controversial reality show Toddlers & Tiaras, which tracks the bizarre world of U.S. child beauty pageants, was aired yesterday, when a pageant mother described the means they use to get their children ready for the stage.
Alana Holler, 6, and her mother June, from McIntyre, Georgia, are the subjects of this week’s show.
June Holler, a self-proclaimed “Coupon Queen” told producers that she has tried various products to excite her daughter, including feeding her with Pixie Stix – tubes of powdered sugar referred to as “pageant crack” – but an unidentified “special juice” is her new secret weapon.
The mother says: “We had tried Pixie Stix… We went through fifteen bags at one pageant, and it just don’t do anything for her.”
With the sugared sticks failing to boost her child’s energy levels, June Holler resorted to making her own liquid concoction.
“A lot of pageant moms and people know what the <<special juice>> is – everybody has their different concoctions, <<special juice>> is to help her energize her.”
“A lot of moms say, <<Oh, well you’re doping up your child>>, well hey, no I’m not. I’m not hurting her”, June Holler continued.
“…She just drinks it for pageants, to give her that extra <<oomph>>. So, whatever works for your child, use it.”
A bystander explains: “They want their child to stand out, so you’ve got those moms that are going to do whatever is necessary to put their child in that light.”
No matter how safe June Holler claims her daughter’s “special” drink is, viewers have voiced their concern about its effects on the youngster’s behaviour.
No brand names are mentioned on the show, but many have speculated that the drink is Mountain Dew, a caffeinated soft drink. Others believe it even contains alcohol.
June Holler is filmed instructing Alana to take “two big gulps” from an unlabelled drinks bottle. Within seconds the change is apparent.
The young pageant contestant starts rapidly swinging her arms over her head and spinning around on the floor, exclaiming: “My go-go juice is kicking in right now!”
After her drink fix, Alana Holler takes to the stage in a plaid shirt displaying inches of stomach to perform a routine, inspired by sex symbol Daisy Duke.
Describing how the drink makes her feel, Alana Holler says smiling: “Go-go juice makes me laughy, and play-ey, and makes me feel like I want to pull my mommy’s hair.”
It seems Alana Holler is already a spirited child though. She has a bizarre speaking manner that is at once precocious and incoherent.
Alana Holler tells the camera: “Those other girls must be crazy if they think they’re gonna beat me, honey boo boo child!”
The 6-year-old girl reveals that she wants to win pageant to make money because “a dollar makes me holler, honey boo boo!”
But Alana Holler is not entirely enthusiastic about the pageant experience. She says: “Beauty is so boring, I don’t want to do it.”
The mother’s enthusiasm is more than evident though. As her daughter takes to the stage, she is filmed yelling encouragement, and instructing dance moves.
When she is not accompanying her daughter on the pageant circuit, June Holler says she spends her time collecting money-saving coupons and stockpiling hundreds of household products – a pursuit her daughter claims she wants to follow.
Footage taken inside the family home reveals rooms stocked with hundreds of items ranging from toilet paper to rolls of aluminium foil.
Toddlers & Tiaras show has caused outcry with many who believe that it could influence youngsters to adopt inappropriate behaviour and campaigners set up a Facebook group, “Take <<Toddlers And Tiaras>> off the Air!” in a bid to have the plug pulled on the show.
Previous series have featured children as young as three, emulating inappropriate characters including a prostitute from Pretty Woman and buxom country singer Dolly Parton.
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