Party Princess

Thanks to her schoolfriends, Brooke James from South London is set to have a 10th birthday party to remember.  Not because they plan to celebrate with her, but because they turned down her birthday party invitation on the grounds that she was “too fat”.  When only two out of 20 classmates agreed to go to the swimming pool party, Brooke’s mother Chrissy resorted to asking members of her family to make up the numbers.  Meanwhile her aunt Lesley appealed on Facebook for people to send in birthday cards to cheer up her niece who suffers from precocious puberty, a hormonal condition which causes her to develop faster than other children.  Brooke’s mother Chrissy said, ‘When only two people said they wanted to come to Brooke’s party I cried, I was so disappointed for her. It’s a swimming party and she told me they said she was fat and would look like a whale in her costume so they didn’t want to be there.’  Expecting a few positive messages, Brooke’s family were stunned when the appeal went viral on social media.  It eventually reached Miss British Beauty Curve, a community of beauty queens which celebrates the diversity of the human body.  Not only did the beauty queens invite Brooke and her mother to the inaugural Miss International Curve 2017, but they also set up a funding page called ‘Operation Brooke’s Birthday’ to give her a day to remember.  And it looks like she will get just that as at the time of writing £400 had already been raised.  Beauty queen Emily Diapre explained, ‘It broke our hearts to hear that such a young girl has started to believe in the idea that being fat is an unlikeable trait… No-one should ever feel like that, especially not a 10-year-old.  We wanted to show her that fat is beautiful, it isn’t a dirty word and we should embrace ourselves.  We’re planning to give this little queen her own sash, crown and title – as well as lots of other surprises – so she can feel as fierce as we do!  Lots of girls from various pageants have come together because we want to make her day really magical. A party is the most important thing in the world when you’re that age and everyone should feel like a princess on their birthday, it’s the one day that’s all about you.’  Brooke’s mother Chrissy has been overwhelmed by the response, ‘She was so upset about her party, unkind people made her feel very low, but what the Miss British Beauty Curve queens have done is completely overwhelming.  Going to the pageant in Kent and staying in a hotel will be the first time we’ve been away together, just the two of us, so it’s going to be so special.  The best thing will be seeing her smile and her knowing how beautiful she really is.’  Miss British Beauty Curve, you beauties!