I've always thought that beauty pageants are so weird. These moms are basically forcing their kids into them and trying to live vicariously through their kids winning pageants.
probably the same as fathers pushing their sons into sports
Eh it's a little weirder than sports. They make kids wear tons of makeup, fake teeth, and often times very provocative and inappropriate outfits for their ages.
fake teeth? they actually use fake teeth?
Yeah it looks bizarre. They're little kids and they're getting spray tanning and waxing done for these pageants to the point that with all the makeup they don't even look like themselves.
it seems like there should be some rules that limit make-up and tanning 
I definitely agree with that, honestly I feel like there should be strict rules on them as far as sexualizing little kids goes, since they're pretty much always younger than 16 years of age.
these kid's pageants, who do they appeal to? an audience or just the parents involved
Well the moms are the ones getting the most out of it, but these actually started back in 1921 in an effort to boost tourism to an Atlantic City hotel, so there are definitely people who seem to get a kick out of them.
does these pageants have a overseeing board to govern or are they mostly local and private individual pageants?
As far as I know there are so many different types of pageants that it would be hard to have one entity govern them. There's talent shows, swim wear, theme wear, western wear, and pretty much anything else you could think of.
I enjoyed the chat, take care