You'd better redneckonize who's responsible for Mama June's stardom!
In 2012, the Mama June: From Not to Hot star, whose real name is June Shannon, and her daughter Alana Thompson, aka Honey Boo Boo, made their TV debuts on season five of TLC's Toddlers & Tiaras when the child was six.
The show focused on kid pageant queens and their parents and Alana was its breakout star, becoming famous for her confidence, sass and bluntness, as well as her catchphrases such as "redneckonize" and "A dolla makes me holla!"
Like Amy Poehler's "cool mom" character in Mean Girls, June helped Alana get through the pageants while standing in the audience.
"She knows...when I go like that [rubs stomach], she'll be knowing she needs to be showing the tummy to the judges," June said on the show.
The matriarch, whose nickname then was "Coupon Queen," gave an inside look at their home life and explained some of the behind-the-scenes secrets of child pageants. She revealed that pageant moms give their kids a "special juice," essentially an energy drink—a new trend after boosting their energy for years with Pixie Sticks.
"A lot of moms say, 'Oh, you're doping up your child,'" June said on the show. "Well, hey, no I'm not. I'm not hurting her...she just drinks it for pageants to give her that extra 'oomph,' so whatever works for your child, use it."
Alana was a hit, so TLC gave her her own spinoff, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, which focused on her life at home in Georgia and starred her mom, her dad and June's ex Mike "Sugar Bear" Thompson, and her sisters Lauryn "Pumpkin" Shannon, Jessica "Chubbs" Shannon and Anna "Chickadee" Shannon. The show ended its three-season run in 2014.
Alana, who is now 11 and doesn't compete in pageants anymore, gave an update about her life on OWN's Where Are They Now? last year and also showcased all the crowns, trophies, medals and sashes she won as a child beauty queen.
"This one [says], 'Photogenic,'" she said, holding up a sash.
"We stopped filming the show, I was kinda happy about that and at the same time, I was sad," Alana said. "So I was...sa-happy?"