Christine Marie

Princesses are not a new phenomenon. Little girls, and even some little boys, have been dreaming of all things royal well before the soft spoken, animal loving Snow White graced the silver screen in 1938. At the time, even Walt Disney himself could little imagine the multibillion-dollar franchise that would come to be known as the Disney Princesses. Today, it is hard to imagine there is anyone in the world that hasn’t heard of Disney – they have successfully built the world’s most recognizable brand and in the process, idealized princesses into mainstream culture. In today’s day and age, no one is immune to the “bippity boppity” sensation that can be found in the closets of nearly every little girl in the developed world, my girl’s included…so, is that a bad thing?

Just this week, I returned with my family from a trip to the Happiest Place on Earth and all things Princess. If you have ever questioned your child’s exposure to mainstream media (we do not have paid TV services in our home so my children’s access to all things mainstream is somewhat limited), simply take them to Disneyland and stand back in awe as your child exclaims in wonder over a princess you have never heard of (Elena of Avalon? I’m sorry, who are you?) That being said, I came to realize something as we slogged through the thousands of other families waiting for their turn to glimpse Disney Royalty; princesses don’t always come wrapped in pretty pink dresses and sparkling shoes. Sometimes, a princess rocks a pair of Chuck Taylors and a Light Saber and thinks nothing of it, and why should she?

In 1977 the world was introduced to another kind of princess – a quick tonged, sharp whited, feisty heroine that had no problem carrying out her royal diplomatic duties while at the same time covertly working for a rebellious operation looking to overthrow the oppressive ruling body…oh Leia, how we needed you. I could bore you with the details of the global franchise that is Star Wars but let’s not kid ourselves, you’ve heard of it, just as you’ve heard of Disney. And speaking of, in late 2012 Disney acquired Lucasfilm, and in turn, the rights to the Star Wars franchise for a whopping steal of $4.05 billion dollars. So what does this mean for the future of the Star Wars franchise? To be honest, not much…Starting with Star Wars Rebels (an animated television series), certain products are now co-branded with the Disney brand, akin to what Disney did with Pixar, but more importantly, Disney now owns the merchandising rights to all things Star Wars related. So what does this really mean for the average Joe like you and me? Well, it means my daughter can now get her pretty pink princess makeover in the morning and attend Jedi academy that same afternoon…and in my opinion, that’s pretty damn cool.

In today’s day and age of easily accessible media and marketing, our children will undoubtedly be influenced by the princess phenomenon; but not just princesses, but super heroes and mean girls and actors and pop singers and political figures…for better or worse, our children have access to the world and the world has influence on them. For this reason, I have made the conscious decision that media will not raise my children, I will. I will do everything in my power to provide my two young girls access to all kinds of characters in all different types of media. They will read about real-world heroes and watch their animated characters defeat the evil villains. Princesses or Jedi knights, Wonder Woman or Super Man, my children have access to it all.

We will discuss why Princess Leia doesn’t wear sparkly dresses (as we did in line to Star Tours), and why it was cool that Hermione is the smartest kid in her class. We will use the stories of which they are intimately familiar to discuss more complex life lessons; You don’t need superpowers to be a super hero, your flaws can be your greatest strengths (Bruce Banner anyone?), we all have something we are good at (Merida is a princess but also a master archer), be proud of who you are. In today’s fast paced, media influenced culture, all we can do is help our children be their own kind of princess (or prince). All we can do is help guide the conversations, help them understand what they are being subjected to, and hopefully, one day, you too will see your daughter on stage at Disneyland, rocking her Chuck Taylors, hair bows and light saber as she duels the evil Darth Vader…. that’s my girl! That’s my different kind of princess.