Fake eyelashes. Make-up. Costumes. Make-up. Fake tans. More make-up.

When it boils down to it, these words can sum up beauty pageants pretty well.

One of the many idolized pageants stars is Eden Wood. Wood is not an ordinary nine year-old girl. If you do not know who this little girl is by name, you probably would recognize her right away if you searched her name on Google images.

Wood has frequently been featured on “Toddlers and Tiaras,” a show blowing pageants out of proportion.

Pageants are, for lack of better terms, a joke.

For one, take the portraits needed by all participants to participate. For Wood, these are the pictures that pop up on Google images if you search her name.

Wood’s pictures are not even remotely realistic.

Every close-up picture of Wood depicts her as having unblemished skin, perfect blonde hair and exaggerated facial features. Altogether, Wood represents a Barbie doll better than what should be a representation of a normal nine year-old girl.

Young girls seeing Wood in this way gives them a misconception of reality. Viewing Wood, one might think that beauty is more important than other aspects of life, such as education.

This point is proven when observing pageants of an older age group.

On Sunday, Sept. 13 Miss Georgia Betty Cantrell was crowned Miss America 2016.

During her questionnaire, Cantrell was asked a question concerning Tom Brady about whether or not she believed that he cheated.

Even though this question seems odd and pointless to ask, Cantrell’s answer could have certainly been much more intelligent than it was.

In entirety, this was her answer:

“Did he cheat? That’s a really good question. I’m not sure. I think I’d have to be there, to see the ball, and feel it- make sure if it was deflated or not deflated. But if there was question there? Then yes, I think he cheated. If there was any question to be had, I think that he definitely cheated and that he should have been suspended for that. That’s not fair.”

All I keep on thinking about after reading this is how she won the Miss America Pageant. Repeating the word “cheating” several times and rewording the question various ways does not make her seem intelligent at all. If anything, she sounds like a philosophical idiot.

Cantrell goes to support that beauty is the focus of pageants, and that pageants are not a representation of women who are said to be role models. If Cantrell was not so hung up on her appearance and how people perceived her, she would have been spending more time on the aspects of life that are more important and demanded of people that want to be successful. Obviously, education was not a top priority for Cantrell, as her answer reflects it all.

This is pitiful; the fact that these pageants get world-wide attention is disgusting. Pageants promote beauty over brains, and young girls look up to these women, or even girls such as Wood, that put all of their time and effort into transforming themselves into the society’s perception of what it means to be beautiful.

Education is much more important than “being beautiful.” If only spelling bees got as much attention as these petty pageants. These contestants would be better role models for society than women such as Wood or Cantrell.