KATIE Stewart's day began at 5.30 am. She was given a bath, had a very light, low-fat, low-calorie breakfast, and at 6.30 began a two-hour hair and make-up session.
Katie's personal beautician Kathy Wyatt had travelled with her from Tennessee to their hotel on the Georgia coast. Kathy worked on Katie's hair - setting it in tight pink rollers - and then spent an hour on her make-up, transforming her into a specimen fit for examination under the harsh glare of stage lights.
At 9 am Katie was ready to begin her big day, in which she would be scrutinised, questioned, cooed over, cajoled, pleaded with and begged to do her best. Katie Stewart is three.
This big day was the first of a long weekend at Jekyll Island in Georgia where, at the Southern Charm Beauty Pageant, Katie and 90 other contestants aged from six months to six years would be transformed into living Barbie dolls for trophies nearly as tall as themselves - and prizes of thousands of dollars and Hawaiian cruises.
The pageant system is getting progressively younger and bigger, offering a year-round series of fiercely-contested weekends for parents who can put themselves and their offspring through a gruelling diet of travel, preparation and performance. At six months, a baby can do very little except be carried on stage by its parents wearing a series of expensive and extravagant costumes.
How you award points for personality in a baby is something only the judges can answer, and at Jekyll Island they were giving away no secrets.
'We can't divulge how our scores are tabulated,' said 50-year-old Sarah Miller, a professional pageant judge. 'Mothers will look for any edge that might give their child an advantage, so we keep it as fair as possible by not revealing any tips.' In the talent section, an excruciating programme of songs ranging from The Star Spangled Banner to America The Beautiful was performed by two and three-year-olds to an audience who, judging by their expressions, clearly think they were in the presence of child prodigies.
