Will posing in an online "Hottie Girl" contest hurt a college girl's future?

If you're a college Coed and are thinking about entering a "Hottie Girl" type online contest for the potential to win cash prizes to pay off your student loans, you might want to think twice. In the SFGate, there is a story asking if photos of online beauty contests can hurt a college woman's future.

For example, the site College Humor has this popular hottie contest called, "America's Hottest College Girl 2007" where girls are matched up against each other each day, and the voting public gets to vote who climbs the ladder until we get a winner. For each girl there are even profile details where they ask things like, "What are the beat and worst pick up lines? and Have you ever made a guy cry?" Yeah, it's deep stuff.

Most, not all, of the girls are dressed in a bikini, swimsuit, or some kind of tightly clingy ensemble showing loads of skin. No nudity is allowed but you can pose in your best Maxim or FHM pose which mind you is locker pinup material. Because this contest is online, these pictures will stay around forevah!

Will the fact that you entered or participated in a hottie or beauty contest hurt your future? I say it depends on what kind of contest it is, what kind of pictures you are posing in, and what do you want to do in your future? If you want to be a Paris Hilton or Jenna Jameson when you grow up, that is one thing, but if you want to be a in a future position that requires the utmost level of respectability and honor like being a Chief Justice, school teacher, or even a potential Miss USA, then I would seriously, seriously sit down and think about what kind of risk you're willing to bear for the sake of having some fun and popularity in some skin baring hottness tournament.

• Are you going to be proud of being in this contest and having your parents, future husband and children see you nearly naked posing seductively for millions of oogling hormonal males?
• Picture yourself 10 years from now, jockeying for a Vice-President or Partner position at the Firm, and they throw on the desk the pictures of you in that wet t-shirt contest you entered when you were a college sophomore. Will you be prepared to handle the jokes and the taunting from co-workers who are trying to bring you down because people get really mean when competing at work?
• Think of two people you highly respect and regard, and picture yourself telling them about this contest you want to enter and show them the pictures you want to submit. Will they support your decision or not?

The lessons in being young is doing stupid crazy things we think we can. But now, we live in a digital age where pictures, videos, and voice recordings can live on forever, and are accessible to anyone once it hits the Internet. I'm not saying you can't go do wild and crazy things. Just take a moment to think. If you think that you don't care, really, you just might later on.