Chelsey Russell, 4, “really, really” likes the pageant lifestyle, and that’s OK with her grandparents.

FARMINGTON – Chelsey Russell was always playing dress-up. She’d parade around the house with a plastic crown, showing her pearly whites.

Chelsey plays beauty queen like most girls play house.

Her grandparents and legal guardians, Linda and Robert Unwin of Farmington, started entering her into beauty pageants.

It seemed to them like a natural direction for a little girl with wide, piercing blue eyes, sky-high lashes, Barbie-pink cheeks, a smattering of freckles and a spunky, feminine personality.

“Besides her being beautiful, she has a very nice personality,” boasts Linda. “The hair and the eyes, that doesn’t make a person. Personality is the most important category.”

Russell competes in the Sunburst Beauty Pageants, an established pageant group that attracted Linda because of its family values and because it prefers that young contestants not wear make-up.

“They’re children, and they need to stay looking like children. They don’t have to be all glamorized. They just want them to be kids,” Linda says.

Last year, at age 4, Chelsey was first runner-up for Sunburst’s Maine contest in the 4 and under category, Linda says. What made Linda most proud was that Chelsey won for best personality in her age group.

Chelsey and her grandparents will head to Portland in May, where she’ll compete against other wannabe beauty queens in the pee-wee division. She’ll be judged in a long list of categories that include swimsuit, school wear and talent. There will also be a one-on-one interview and the contestants will be judged on how photogenic they are.

If Chelsey wins or is a runner-up in her age group, she’ll get to go to the international competition in Georgia in August and represent Maine, Linda says.

Between playing with one of her 110 Barbie dolls or furiously peddling her bike around the family’s small yard, Chelsey reveals that the pageants are “so fun” and that she gets really happy when she wins a trophy.

She pointed out that it’s important to be polite to the interviewer and to say goodbye when it’s all over.

Chelsey wants someday to be a cheerleader or a model. As for the competition in May, “I am really, really excited,” she screams. “I like it. Really, really.”

While Linda has heard all the criticisms about beauty pageants and how they objectify women, she brushes them off.

Although the family is hopeful Chelsey will win scholarships and someday be Miss Maine, Linda points out that when their granddaughter decides she doesn’t want to enter anymore, both Linda and Robert will be supportive.

“We do it for Chelsey. We do it for her self-esteem. It’s a time for her to share with other kids. It’s a learning process,” Linda explains. “We will never, ever force it on her.”

Linda also admitted she enjoys the time spent with her granddaughter, helping her get her dance moves down for the talent contest or getting all primped up for a competition. “It’s good family time,” Linda says.

“And the look on her face when she gets a trophy, that big smile makes it all worth it.”