Child beauty pageants are a billion-dollar industry in the U.S. While some critics see the pageants as an exploitation of innocents, others—particularly pageant parents—view the competitions as a way for a young talent to enter the entertainment industry.

In this Tuesday, December 20, 2016 photo, Mohammad Ramzan, right, reacts while talking to The Associated Press with his young bride Saima in Jampur, Pakistan. Saima was given as a bride to the older man by her father so he could marry the groom’s sister, a practice of exchanging girls that is entrenched in conservative regions of Pakistan. It even has its own name in Urdu: Watta Satta, “give and take”. A mix of interests – family obligations, desire for sons, a wish to hand off a girl to a husband – can lead to a young teen in an a marriage she never sought. (Photo by K.M. Chaudhry/AP Photo)

Ukrainians jump over a fire in Kiev, Ukraine, 06 July 2017, as they celebrate the traditional pagan holiday of Ivana Kupala. Ivana Kupala is celebrated, during the summer solstice, on the shortest night of the year, marking the beginning of summer and is celebrated in Ukraine, Belarus, Poland and Russia on the night of 06 July. People sing and dance around bonfires, play games and perform traditional rituals. Young people jump over bonfires in order to test their bravery. Couples holding hands jump over the flames to test their love. If the couple does not succeed it is predicted to split up. Traditionally, children and young unmarried women wear wreaths of wild flowers on their heads to symbolize purity. (Photo by Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA)

In this May 24, 2016 photo, a young boy descends the Qullqip'unqu mountain looking out at the tens of thousands of pilgrims gathered to celebrate the three-day festival Qoyllur Rit’i, translated from the Quechua language as Snow Star, in the Andean Sinakara Valley, in Peru's Cusco region. The celebration that mixes Catholic and indigenous beliefs honors Jesus as well as the area’s glacier, which is considered sacred among some indigenous people. While the native celebration is far older, the Christian part of the ritual stretches back to the 1700s, when Jesus is said to have appeared to a young shepherd in the form of another boy. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

The Eiffel Tour-the body language of balance. I came across this group of young adults from Sarajevo, Bosnia, having fun testing their balance two nights ago in on the Esplanade de Trocadero. (Photo and comment by Peter Turnley)

In this Wednesday, November 15, 2012 file photo, a young girl in her colorful dress reaches out to greet a Pakistani policeman securing the road outside Kainat Riaz's home in Mingora, Swat Valley, Pakistan. (Photo by Anja Niedringhaus/AP Photo)

A young girl sells balloons by the Yamuna River as devotees carrying idols of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, immerse the idol on the last day of the ten-day-long Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Delhi, India, September 15, 2016. (Photo by Cathal McNaughton/Reuters)