Every little girl wants to be a princess, maybe even me once upon a time. But, it stopped when I was young, probably too young. I think the end of my interest, honestly, came from animated movies.
The closest thing to me in Disney movies is probably Quasimodo. He was disabled, isolated, and owns a nonstandard body in a way I could relate to. He wanted so much to have a “normal life” and, to a child who is very different, it hit on everything so much. Maybe he didn’t want to be normal, though. Maybe that was my pre-teen self merely projecting. I’ve seen the movie once… only once.
I also had other people I related to (somewhat) in fairy tales… the fairy godmothers. I loved that they were kind, helpful, and often depicted as chubby, just as I saw myself. No one ever talked about the fairy godmothers’ lives after they helped secure someone else’s blissful ending. Did they have one themselves? Did anyone else care but me? I pictured myself a fairy godmother, sitting down with other godmothers at the end of the day, sharing tea and comparing notes.
There will never be a princess like me. There will never be anyone like me in fairy tales unless I write one to life. It matters little now, but maybe it would matter to some other little girl like me.
Did you relate to anyone in fairy tales as a child?
Mostly, I identified with the princes or the villains because at least they DID something. It was a little better with the ones that came out when I was older (starting with The Little Mermaid, probably) because the princesses started to do something besides waiting to be found/rescued. Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella were all BORING.
ReplyDelete@mirymom1 from
Balancing Act