Pretty Hurts (2025 Lifetime Movie)
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Cast: Haylie Duff, Sarah Borne, Kaci Barker, Cyane Gan, Haley Gosserand
Director: TBA
Writer(s): TBA
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DonateDonate monthlyDonate yearlySynopsis (via Lifetime)
Brought to you by GSK. To win scholarship money for college, Lauren enters the same beauty pageant her mom once dominated in her youth. Lauren is thrust into a dark, toxic world of cutthroat competition and manipulation. Too preoccupied with the pageant, Lauren doesn’t realize that her best friend Rae is falling seriously ill with an uncommon and potentially deadly disease — meningitis B – prompting her to turn the pageant platform into a tool for awareness. Haylie Duff, Sarah Borne, Kaci Barker, Cyane Gan, and Haley Gosserand (2025).
GSK has provided both financial and content support for this program. Intended for US audiences only.
Recap/Wine Thoughts
Inspired by Real Stories
Haylie Duff is a mom whose daughter is being taken away on a stretcher.
Cut to six weeks earlier, we meet Lauren, a barista and teenager. Her best friend Rae makes fun of her for having a mother obsessed with beauty pageants. Lauren is working to get into a college, and she makes it into Vanderton to become a doctor.
Haylie Duff and her husband discuss how they plan to pay for their child’s elite college education. Lauren overhears them and meets with her guidance counselor to figure out a way to pay for school without inconveniencing her parents.
Haylie Duff’s former beauty queen friend, Helean, moves to town and wants to reconnect because her teenage daughter is entering the Miss Teen Starfire competition. The prize money would cover tuition, and Lauren wants to compete, too. Haylie Duff is reluctant but agrees to train her daughter to enter the beauty pageant.
Lauren’s friend Rae and the cute gay guy are surprised that she is entering the beauty contest and being a total sell-out. Lauren thinks she will have time to be on the prom committee, work her job, attend school, and participate in the pageant. Her friends worry she is overcommitted.
CUE A DRESS TRY ON MONTAGE (The music is terrible)
Helena’s daughter, Nora, shows Lauren the ropes. Nora warns Lauren to get out while she can and tells her about the other front runners. The only types of girls are Liars, Criers, and Kleptos. Maddie comes from a long line of winners, and Brianna wants to become Insta-famous. Mrs. Brooks runs the pageant with her grandson, Drew. (I don’t know his alphabet, but he seems kinda gay to me!)
Lauren realizes that she isn’t going to win, but she shoots for the top three. She tells Rae that she can’t be on the prom committee and turns down a part-time job that pays $30 an hour in the medical field! (What is wrong with her!) Haylie Duff is thrilled to be spending time with her daughter working on pageants.
Drew conducts interviews with the girls, and he advises Lauren on what to do, what makeup to wear, and what rude things the other girls are saying about her. (They call her a nepo baby.) Lauren doesn’t take to being bullied or pushed around and storms off. Nora chases after her and calms her down. The stress gets to Lauren, and she starts pulling out her hair.
Haylie Duff talks to Mrs. Brooks about Lauren coming home later and being stretched too thin. Mrs. Brookes pretends to be putting the girls first, but when she sees Lauren next, Mrs. Brookes calls Lauren a complainer and tells her to sex up her image more. (Lauren wears Granny Panties.) Images of Drew putting lipstick on Lauren are posted in the dressing room, calling her a whore.
A judge is replaced at the last minute, and his name is Roger Hammond. Nota was sexually harassed by him and wants to drop out of the competition, too. Lauren tries to comfort her mentor, but Nora tells her not to worry. The hair keeps coming out, and Haylie Duff has some serious concerns about her daughter competing. Lauren freaks out on her mom, saying she will do whatever it takes to win.
Lauren stays up late practicing her dance routine in the mirror and changes her dress.
It is the night of the pageant, and Rae comes backstage to wish Lauren good luck. Lauen notices a rash on Rae’s arm and a crick in her neck. Raw says she is fine; it is just a slight headache.
As the competition continues, the tension rises as the girls dance around on stage. Lauren makes it to the top five.
Rae looks worse and worse as the night goes on, and she says she is going to skip celebrating and call her mom to take her home. Haylie Duff gives Rae some medicine and rushes to make sure men aren’t taking advantage of her daughter.
As they are leaving the pageant, paramedics are outside, taking an unconscious Rae away on a stretcher. Rae has meningitis B. The doctors put her in a medically induced coma and tells Rae’s mom that 1 and 10 teens with Meningitis DIE.
Haylie Duff talks with Mrs. Brookes about the Meningitis, but Mrs. Brookes wants to talk about Lauren blowing the whistle about the inappropriate judge. Mrs. Brookes offers Lauren $ 10,000 to withdraw from the pageant as Miss Congeniality. If she doesn’t, Mrs. Brooks will start a public smear campaign stating Lauren was trying to seduce her grandson, Drew. MENINGITIS IS NOT EVEN MENTIONED!!!!
The competition continues; Lauren delivers an impassioned speech about Meningitis and urges everyone to get vaccinated. Then, she recites a poem about dying? It was lost on me! It is time for the judge’s questions, and the sexual harasser judge asks Lauren why she should win? Lauren calls out the pageant for not protecting the contestants from harassment, and she withdraws from the competition.
Mrs. Brookes is arrested! Yay! Bye! The police investigate, and lawyers determine that Starfire Pageant is liable for putting the contestant in danger. They all receive a payout, and Lauren can afford to pay for school.
Rae is getting better and out of her coma. She misses the prom and loses half her hand to the disease. Rae has a positive attitude and still wants to go to cosmetology school. Nora and her mom are in therapy to work through her trauma.
One year later, Lauren speaks out on her college campus about Meningitis to raise awareness through an app she created.
STRAY Thoughts
This movie WISHES it were Miss Congeniality.
Overall rating
Number of Kills: None
Lifetime Tropes: High School Bullies, Pagents, College-bound, Public Service Announcement
Enjoyment Level (1-5 scale)
🍷🍷🍷 (3 Glasses of Wine)
Should you watch it?
Pour it Up (Give it a shot!)
Put a Cork in It (Skip It!)
What did you think of the movie? Let me know in the comments or on social media at @LifetimeUncorked and @patrickmiguel.
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*Photo Credit: © 2025 A&E Television Networks, LLC
Let me know what you thought of the movie in the comments below or @lifetimeuncorked
Wow now I know why the meningitis B storyline felt so tacked on lol.