90's princess v. Today

            I am an only child, and many would say that makes me spoiled, and with todays article it might make others say that I am a princess. Looking back on my childhood I am able to see that I might have been a “princess”, but a very different one than the kids we see today.

            One thing that really struck truth for me in the reading was when the mother was talking about how her child loves the Disney Princesses, but doesn’t know their stories. I can say this is very true, and I saw it all the time in the children that I babysat while in high school. These girls are in head to toe Disney Princess attire. If they aren’t wearing the dress-up ball gowns, they are dressed in t-shirts with Ariel’s face on it, or crocs with Princess charms. Everything in their life revolves around The Princesses. But, this was not around when I was a child, not until 2000- when I was already in the 3^rd grade. When I was at my “princess” age,  3-7, the only thing that identified me with the Disney Princesses were their movies, that at the time came in large puffy cases (ah nostalgia).  The princess I wanted to model myself after, the only princess I thought to be “true” was Princess Diana. I think this was because she was actually there, in real life. Because the Disney Princess brand had not been formed yet they were still just cartoon characters for me, nothing that I thought I could ever be.

            It could just be because I was a realistic child, that I realized would never fall under a curse, sleep for 10 years, and be awoken by a prince, or it could be that I escaped the era of childhood branding. Today kids are walking around, some almost trying to embody the Disney Princess brand. It’s a little sad, and a lot scary, to me that girls are trying to become something they never can.