Mom of 2 Reveals What “Toddlers & Tiaras ”Got Right and Wrong About Kid Pageantry (Exclusive)

Zoey LyttleFri, July 3, 2026 at 1:00 PM UTC

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Lauren Soderlund's daughter, Charli.Credit: Lauren Soderlund -

Lauren Soderlund's daughters Charli, 6, and Lacie Lou, 4, have been competing in pageants for most of their lives, and they've consistently been backed by the support of their mom

While Soderlund didn't personally compete in pageants when she was a young girl, she was familiar with the world thanks to TLC's hit series Toddlers & Tiaras

Through her own lived experience, the mom of two has come to realize that some aspects of the reality show were real, like the kids' glamorous hair and makeup, but there's far less drama than what was seen on screens

Lauren Soderlund used to watch Toddlers & Tiarasas it aired on TLC. Now, she lives it.

However, since she became a pageant mom herself, Soderlund realized that there's far more to the kid competitions than what the world watched on screens when the hit reality show aired from 2009 to 2016. Her daughters Charli, 6, and Lacie Lou, 4, have been competing in pageants since a very young age, with Charli making her stage debut at just 8 months old.

Soderlund, 31, has continued to encourage her girls as their biggest fan and as their very own in-house dressmaker, having launched her Dollhouse Designs bespoke gown business. The mom of two shares videos and photos of her fashion creations and her daughters wearing them with over 29,000 TikTok followers.

Lauren Soderlund's daughter Charli (left) with a friend.Credit: Lauren Soderlund

She often uses the tag #ToddlersandTiaras in the captions of her posts, but not because Lacie Lou and Charli are involved in any reality TV series like the hit TLC series. Soderlund wasn't a pageant girl herself, and she left behind a career in nursing to support her kids' pageantry pursuits. However, she is a longtime fan of Toddlers & Tiaras, so she appreciates the way her life mirrors parts of that world.

"It's crazy because when I was little watching the show and you see all these people, the coaches and the directors and all of that, and now these are people that I know and I'm friends with now, because they're still in this world and they still are vendors," Soderlund tells PEOPLE. "A lot of the directors are still hosting pageants and the coaches are still coaching. The hair and makeup people are still hair and makeup-ing. So it's cool that I get to know them and be friends with them now."

However, the real kid-pageant world isn't actually as catty as it appeared on Toddlers & Tiaras, says Soderlund. "It's just all theatrics. Of course, that makes good television, but that's really not how it is," she maintains.

"It's a really big family," Soderlund continues. "I'm not going to say 100 percent of the time, but everybody — for the most part — gets along. We all have each other's backs. It really is a tight-knit community. It's not like how they portray on TV where everybody's constantly fighting and drama and all those things."

Plus, she explains that her daughters really do like to get dressed up for the competitions, despite what the world watched on reality television.

"I think that's a lot of the reason it gets a bad name because people care about the kids' experience and when TV makes it seem like it's a bad experience for them, then of course people are going to be against it," says Soderlund.

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Lauren Soderlund's daughters Charli (left) and Lacie Lou (right).Credit: Lauren Soderlund

"I mean, there are definitely parts of it that are not the most enjoyable for them. Charli absolutely hates getting eyelashes put on. She's fine when they're on, but it's like pulling teeth every time just to put the eyelashes on," Soderlund adds. "But then at the same time, she also understands, 'Okay, well, if I want to do the pageant, and I do want to do the pageant, I have to suck it up and put the eyelashes on.'"

Charli and Lacie Lou both also do modeling and acting as well. They've done commercials, and Charli recently appeared in a movie. While social media opens up Soderlund's content to both positive and negative reactions, she doesn't see that as any more exposure than their careers already allow. She's generally unbothered by the comments from people who don't understand the pageant world.

"I know that if I was in their position looking in, I probably wouldn't understand it either," Soderlund tells PEOPLE. "There are a lot of things that I see online that I don't understand and might not feel comfortable with or think is weird. But the people that are doing it don't, so there must be a reason they're doing it, right?"

Lauren Soderlund's daughter Lacie Lou.Credit: Lauren Soderlund

Some TikTok comments speculate that Charli and Lacie Lou's parents are profiting from their daughters' success in competition, but Soderlund is quick to debunk the misconception. She says anything they are paid gets put away into Charli and Lacie Lou's respective stock accounts, which are managed by Soderlund's husband.

"We don't touch any of it. It goes straight into their accounts, and those have been growing since they started earning," the former nurse says.

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And Soderlund doesn't just measure the value of her kids' extracurricular pursuits in dollars. In addition to the monetary compensation and scholarship awards, pageantry is also helping the girls build confidence and learn key behavioral skills.

"It teaches them how to speak to adult strangers that they don't know," Soderlund says. "These kids are amazing. They have accomplished so much more in their few years on this Earth than I have ever done in my 31."

on People

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”