Anderson Cooper invited three child pageant stars (including Eden Wood), along with their moms and a former child beauty queen who felt robbed of her childhood to be on the show. After Wood did a performance, Cooper’s wardrobe department washed off the girls’ makeup backstage, took out their hair extensions, and put them in quasi-normal outfits (Wood was still wearing knee-high black leather boots, but at least they didn’t have heels). All three girls promptly confessed that they prefer going barefaced, which was corroborated by the former child star (“I was happiest when I was playing soccer or digging for worms in my own backyard,” she says, looking woeful). The moms, sensing a trap, quickly agreed that they like their daughters best without makeup too, except for Eden’s: “However she wants to be,” she said, shaking her head.
