Bart Rathbone and the Electric Palace are sponsoring Odyssey’s first beauty contest, junior division. Melanie and Traci are a bit disappointed because they know their parents won’t let them enter such a silly contest. But one of their friends, Monica, has entered the contest, and she’s taking it very seriously. Or rather, her mother is. Monica’s mom insists that Monica act much older than her 11 years. She won’t let Monica play or swim with the other girls. She buys Monica makeup and the latest teenage fashions. She places her daughter on diets, all to try and mold her into a model child.

Monica doesn’t like all these restrictions, but she has too much respect for (and fear of) her mother to rebel. But when Monica can't fit into the dress her mother has bought her for the beauty contest, she runs away to the forest where Melanie and Ann find her. Monica is devastated, she knows her mother will be angry that she couldn’t lose enough weight to wear the dress.

Ann and Melanie start to take her back to town when Monica collapses. They rush her to the hospital. Later, Monica and her mother both get counseling help. Monica won’t be winning any beauty contests, but she will get back to being a normal little girl.