Toddler performs with a cigarette

Last updated 14:31 31/08/2012
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Tiaras
TLC
SHOCKING: Four-year-old Destiny with her fake cigarette on stage.

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American reality show Toddlers & Tiaras has caused yet another controversy after featuring a four-year-old girl 'smoking' a fake cigarette while dressed as Sandy from Grease.

"Don't forget to smoke," mother Lisa is encouraging her daughter Destiny as she flaunts the stage clad in leather trousers and high heels.

Although some judges were not happy with the smoking toddler, mother Lisa remained unperturbed, saying that just like Sandy in Grease her daughter was using the cigarette "to look cool".

"Sandy comes out and throws down a cigarette so Destiny's going to do that.

"We feel like that's a part of acting and it's part of the routine so we've added it in there and I believe she will do just fine with it.

"You know Sandy was a good girl, she didn't smoke either but she used it for image," she said.

Despite being unimpressed by Destiny's "inappropriate prop" the judges still named the four-year old "Personality Supreme."

The show that features ambitious mums, pushing their toddlers to be successful at beauty pageants has been met with a lot of criticism since debuting on US channel TLC in 2009.

One stage mum dressed her three-year-old daughter as Julia Roberts' hooker character from Pretty Woman.

Most recently Toddlers & Tiaras off-spin Here Comes Honey Boo-Boo caused controversy for the mother's decision to give her daughter a mixture of Mountain Dew and Red Bull, called go-go-juice to, 'energise her: her stage performance.

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- © Fairfax NZ News

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