Lifetime greenlights new original movie, Pretty Hurts, set to premiere on Saturday, June 28 @ 8PM/7c. The film stars Haylie Duff, as Julie, a former beauty pageant winner and now a mom who, alongside her daughter Lauren (Sarah Borne), discovers the ugly truths behind the glamour of the teen pageant world. The film includes a storyline that highlights meningococcal disease, known as meningitis, to help educate parents of teens and young adults about the uncommon, but potentially life-threatening illness for which 16- to 23-year-olds are at increased risk. The film is part of GSK’s Ask2BSure public health campaign and is inspired by real families affected by meningitis. GSK provided financial and content support for the film. The storyline sets the stage to highlight the risk of meningitis for this age group, where the bacteria can spread through certain common teen behaviors, including living in close quarters, kissing, and sharing food, drinks, and even lipstick.
In the movie, Lauren , a high school senior, is over the moon when she receives her acceptance letter to her dream university, marking a major step toward her lifelong goal of becoming a doctor. But that excitement quickly fades as she and her parents, including mom, Julie, face the harsh reality of tuition costs. In hopes of winning scholarship money, Lauren makes a decision that goes against everything she promised herself as a child – she enters the same beauty pageant her mother once dominated in her youth. While Julie is eager to relive the glory of her own pageant days and share one last bonding experience with her daughter, Lauren is thrust into a dark, toxic world of cutthroat competition and psychological manipulation, all hidden behind bleached white smiles and rhinestone gowns. Too preoccupied with the pageant, Lauren doesn’t realize that her best friend Rae (Kaci Barker) is falling seriously ill with a potentially deadly but vaccine-preventable disease – meningitis B – prompting her to turn the pageant platform into a tool for awareness and education.
The film emphasizes the importance of proactive conversations between parents of teens and their teen’s doctor, empowering them to “ask to be sure” about meningitis vaccination against all five vaccine-preventable groups of meningitis, A, B, C, W, and Y. The film aims to alert moms that while many teens have received vaccination against serogroups A, C, W, and Y, many may be missing vaccination for meningitis B.6
Pretty Hurts is produced by Singer/White Entertainment and Swirl Films for Lifetime, brought to you by GSK. Executive Producers include Sheri Singer from Singer/White Entertainment and Eric Tomosunas from Swirl Films. Brian Herzlinger directs from a script by Lydia Genner.
