Since I work with young kids during the summer, it is not uncommon to see or hear them talk about various Disney princess and other things related to the brand (if I hear "Let It Go" one more time, I have no idea what am I going to do). So if I ask them who Cinderella is, I probably will be nothing close to the version I learned when I was their age.

Cinderella was always cleaning her house and never had any time for herself. She decided to dress up and go to a fancy party where she met someone who owned a very successful cleaning business. She ended up marrying him, never cleaned her house again, and got her PhD.

This was the the version of Cinderella I was taught when I asked my mother who she was when I was 3. My preschool teachers were shocked to learn that I did not know who this original princess was, so this is what my mother decided to tell me.

In this version, Cinderella is an independent woman who clearly needed a man for somethings but not with other things. Unlike the original, this paints a clear picture of the real world. A world in which there is no one to save you but yourself. However, it is okay to ask for some help once in a while. There are no fairy godmothers or princes to come and help people out of their chairs. It was her choice to go the party where she met a nice guy and then ended up marrying him. Then, not only did she never clean her house again, but then went and got her PhD. She got want she wanted all along. I do not know if we can say the same thing about classical Cinderella. The moral of this story is to not wait for someone to come and save you from your problems but to "go out and get it yourself".

I often wonder if this real life version of Cinderella was taught to young girls (some boys as well) if they would grow up any different to those girls who were taught the Disney version. This story was what I grew up with and I never felt any different from other girls growing up. I never grew up in a household were I played with dolls or fancy dresses. But I do not believe that this has made me any less feminine. I grew up a tom-boy obsessed with Lego's, baseball cards and cars. If anything, this creative version of Cinderella has taught me more than the original version ever could have.

This version, in my opinion, should be taught to girls because it does not offer false promises and young kids can probably relate more to the motto of "go out and get it yourself" than, "if things get any more worse, I'l have to call my fairy godmother to get me out of this situation".

I mean besides Disney basically took all of the Brothers Grim stories and made them into fluffy stories with happy endings, so why not teach a realer version to children.