Miss You Can Do It, 2013
Dir.: Ron Davis
Prod.: Ron Davis
"Accomplishment begins with two words: 'I'll Try'" - Abbey Curran
I hate beauty pageants. I've expressed my very obvious disdain for them when I reviewed The Good Mother. I feel like they're antiquated, useless and promote the wrong kind of values. I'm especially against child beauty pageants. Do I need to go into why? Google "child beauty pageants" and you will see picture after picture of very young girls in overdone hair and make-up far too old for their faces, spray tanned, false eyelashed, plumped, corseted, wearing high heels, doing sexy dance moves...it makes me gag.
Why? Why are we doing this to these little girls? Don't they know that perfection is not the only thing in this world?
But I think I've finally seen a beauty pageant that is worthy of the word "beauty".
Abbey Curran, Miss Iowa 2008, began the Miss You Can Do It pageant in 2005, and this documentary follows its eighth season. It's geared towards little girls as young as four years old who have special needs. Abbey herself was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at the age of two, and became the first woman with a disability to enter Miss USA. Her cerebral palsy effects her legs and can walk unassisted, but during pageants walked with an escort.
"Having a disability doesn't make me different," she said during a pageant interview in 2004. "It just means I have to overcome more challenges."
As for the pageant itself, one of the pageant coordinators says, "Miss You Can Do It is about seeing the beauty behind the challenge."
Abbey Curran, Miss Iowa 2008, began the Miss You Can Do It pageant in 2005, and this documentary follows its eighth season. It's geared towards little girls as young as four years old who have special needs. Abbey herself was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at the age of two, and became the first woman with a disability to enter Miss USA. Her cerebral palsy effects her legs and can walk unassisted, but during pageants walked with an escort.
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| Abbey in the Miss USA pageant in 2008 |
As for the pageant itself, one of the pageant coordinators says, "Miss You Can Do It is about seeing the beauty behind the challenge."
Abbey pays for the entire pageant herself - they have no sponsors, no financial backing. Everything from throwing pizza and cupcake parties for the contestants, to the professional hair and makeup each girl receives, to the trophies given out to every single girl who competes comes from volunteers or from Abbey's own pocket.
Among the contestants are: Meg and her adopted sister Alina, who both have Down Syndrome; Delaney and Teyanna, who each have different types of cerebral palsy (Delaney's is spasmodic, Teyanna's is seizures); Tierney, who has Spinal Muscular Atrophy, a progressive muscle weakening disease; Ali, who has spina bifida, which is a disorder that causes the spine to not be fully formed during development in utero (at age six,she has had nine surgeries); and sisters Tasha, who has cerebral palsy, and Kenna, who has a cognitive disability that affects her memory.
There's an interview process before the pageant, and it takes into account the different types of disabilities there are. There are two different interview rooms: one for those who can talk and one for those who have difficulties speaking. Miss USA 2008 and Miss America 1975 are on the panel of interviewers. They ask them questions like, "What's your favorite color?" and "Do you have any pets at home?"
Each girl gets a chance to show off their personalities. Alina, age four, whose father describes as "a fireball", spends most of the interview playing with the boom mike and then tries to make off with a magazine that Miss USA has on the table in front of her. However, she is quickly distracted by a lollipop. Ali talks about how much she loves Mustang convertibles and sings a Justin Bieber song. Delaney, who is ten, and one of the judges discuss their favorite High School Musical characters (Delaney is also the cutie featured on the movie poster):
The most meaningful interview is twelve-year-old Teyanna. The judges ask her about an essay contest she'd won. The topic was about people with disabilities. She reads some of her essay to the judges: "The meaning of being disabled is not having any power but I have the power to do anything I am willing to try."
As for the actual pageant itself, there are three categories: sportswear/casual wear, formal wear and interview. Nobody, not a single girl, goes home empty handed, and there's an award for everything: Best Formal Wear, Best Sportswear, Best Interview, Miss Congeniality, etc. The girls are thrilled to be going home with a trophy.
Abbey says, "It's not about outfits, it's not about the hair, it's about the girl on the inside...it's truly going to make a difference in her life."
Of course, I am not going to give away the ones who take away the big trophies. I'm going to let you watch and discover for yourself. Because honestly, though I pretty much cried my way through this documentary, I had a huge smile on my face. Director/producer Ron Davis does a wonderful job at letting the pageant unfold, at capturing the indomitable spirits of the contestants and the wonderful stories all the parents - and Abbey's too! - bring to the table. To them, their children are beautiful. But now it's time for those girls to believe it themselves. There is so much beauty in this documentary - from the contestants themselves to their wonderful parents to Abbey's kind, generous spirit - that it can move you to tears. That is why this really is a beauty pageant.
Each girl gets a chance to show off their personalities. Alina, age four, whose father describes as "a fireball", spends most of the interview playing with the boom mike and then tries to make off with a magazine that Miss USA has on the table in front of her. However, she is quickly distracted by a lollipop. Ali talks about how much she loves Mustang convertibles and sings a Justin Bieber song. Delaney, who is ten, and one of the judges discuss their favorite High School Musical characters (Delaney is also the cutie featured on the movie poster):
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| Here, I did you a favor so you don't have to scroll back up :D |
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| Teyanna modeling her sportswear during the pageant |
Abbey says, "It's not about outfits, it's not about the hair, it's about the girl on the inside...it's truly going to make a difference in her life."
Of course, I am not going to give away the ones who take away the big trophies. I'm going to let you watch and discover for yourself. Because honestly, though I pretty much cried my way through this documentary, I had a huge smile on my face. Director/producer Ron Davis does a wonderful job at letting the pageant unfold, at capturing the indomitable spirits of the contestants and the wonderful stories all the parents - and Abbey's too! - bring to the table. To them, their children are beautiful. But now it's time for those girls to believe it themselves. There is so much beauty in this documentary - from the contestants themselves to their wonderful parents to Abbey's kind, generous spirit - that it can move you to tears. That is why this really is a beauty pageant.
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