This week, Talent Management was disturbed by news of one of the UK’s biggest children’s beauty pageants – Miss Glitz Sparkle 2012 – which featured a swimwear round and girls younger than 2 plastered in make-up.

Having already been shocked this year by a French Vogue shoot featuring glammed up child model Thylane Lena-Rose Blondeau, and then, more recently, by images of young girls dressed in lingerie at Jours Après Lunes, outrage relating to the sexualisation of young female models is now firmly focussed on the UK following the event – an event which allowed make-up, hair pieces and spray tans to be used on the children, from babies to 12 years old.

Leanne Woodall, the organiser of the Lincoln-based children’s beauty pageant, has been criticised not just by the team at the agency here, who find a 4-year-old strutting provocatively in full make-up and a tiny swimsuit rather sick, but also by the charity Kidscape, which said it was part of a “disturbing trend”.

Woodall, whose own daughter competed in the controversial pageant, clearly got her inspiration from America, where children’s beauty pageants are in abundance. But it seems, judging by the outcry from the UK public, this isn’t a trend we want bringing over from the states.

The mothers of the competing children, however, disagree. Proud beauty pageant mother Bianca Alsop has hit headlines all week after her 4-year-old daughter Ocean Orrey took part and was crowned Most Beautiful at the toddler and under-12 category.

Bianca told the papers that she goes to incredible lengths to ensure Ocean has the right look for pageantry, which includes a real tan: “I like Ocean to be tanned so I don’t put high factor sun cream on her. Instead, she sunbathes with me and I let her wear the tan-enhancing factor 15 that I use. Our family don’t like fake tan but will use it on her if she hasn’t been on holiday.”

The delusional mother even admitted that she would consider plastic surgery for her daughter when she’s older: “Winning was the best prize for me. As a mother you think your child is the most beautiful — and this confirmed it. But I will not lie to her when she’s older. If she needs something doing and asks me, I will be truthful.

“I know what looks good. I have fake boobs, Botox and teeth veneers and I know when something needs putting right. I’m not naive. In the future the competitions will get bigger, which will mean we may have to resort to pulling a few extra tricks out of the bag.

“Ocean has a sticky-out ear which she has inherited from her dad — we call it the family ‘ear’-loom. As soon as she is old enough to have her ear pinned back, I will be taking her to have it done. That’s no big deal. In fact, I would consider that a minor imperfection that just needs tweaking.”

After the event, organiser Leanne said her event has been described as the “biggest and best pageant in the UK”, and while she admits she understands where criticism has stemmed from, still defends the idea.

“I can understand why people are sceptical about swimwear when they see the American pageants but it’s just a dressing-up costume to the kids,” she told papers. “And everyone in the event had a wristband so we knew exactly who was there. It’s safer than the local park. Until you’ve been to one, you have no idea how much the kids love it.”

Being a model agency with a focus on child models, Talent Management wants to hear from all our models’ parents. Is this a grim way to destroy the innocence of childhood, allowing children to believe that appearance is all that matters? Or is it a bit of carefree fun that children genuinely enjoy taking part in?