A family was slammed by This Morning viewers for entering their four-year-old daughter into beauty pageants.
Enrika Milne from Kent, and her husband Wayne appeared on the This Morning sofa with hosts Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes to defend their decision to enter four year old Arielle in competitions up and down the country.
During the segment, entitled 'We're not sexualising our beauty queen daughter!', dad Wayne was being questioned by Eamonn on whether he worried that people would be looking at his daughter 'in that way'.
'It's no different to other hobbies, like dance, ballet... If you look at children in the way, it doesn't matter where you go to see them,' he replied.
Mum Enrika interjected: 'It's not like she's wearing that every day, again [she performs] in a closed environment, only parents are allowed to come, even a dance competition anyone can come if they buy tickets for it.'
The couple were then joined by Arielle herself, who explained that it took her two hours to prepare for a show. However, Eamonn pointed out that the time could be seen to be cutting into 'what would be a very normal, innocent, unaffected, childhood' - and viewers writing on social media were quick to agree.
'2 hours to get ready she should be playing for them 2 hours and let her be a child,' wrote one parent on Twitter.
Another added: 'It's not right to put false eyelashes & false nails on that young girl...young girls should grow up to be natural!'
'I couldn't watch it! She's a child! she's acting like an adult!I have 2 girls & they don't stay kids for long! Enjoy them when they're young.'
Like many other parents who enter their children into pageants, Enrika and Wayne say that everything is Arielle's choice – to the point where she would come into her mum's beauty salon and demand to have her false nails done!
'She wants to do it; she was born like that,' said her mum, whilst Arielle chimed in: 'I like winning crowns.'
