Disney Princesses have been advancing throughout time. From Snow White, to the newest princess Moana, Disney does its best not only to promote diversity, but a sense of empowerment within young girls.They prove females can strive beyond their physical features. Despite this empowerment and spark of feminism at a young age, I recently discovered it takes more than just being able to overcome adversity and reaching independence to become a Disney princess.There are requirements to become a Disney Princess

Primary Role in their movie

There are currently 11 "official" Disney Princesses including Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan, Tiana, Rapunzel, and Merida. Although many of them attained the role of Princess through marriage, they each had predominant roles in their movies, allowing them to become princesses. Tinker Bell was supposed to be a Disney princess however, her secondary role in Peter Pan prevented her from doing so. Weird huh?

They have to be human or human-like

This is actually a requirement! In order to be a Disney Princess they must be human or human-like such as Ariel. That is why Nala, lioness in "The Lion King" is not among the strong female forces of Disney Princesses

Resolved Romance by the end of the film

Ironically, despite their discovery to find freedom and become independent women, most end up marrying or finding love, which allows them to be qualified as Disney princesses. Even if these princesses have some sort of conflict with their male counterpart at first (Fa Mulan and Shang definitely had their fare share of arguments) they all tend to give up some of their feminist qualities to have dependence on a male in the end. Moana and Merida are among the few Disney princesses that do not have a love interest they marry in the end.

Disney has done much to provide diversity within the Disney princess community, but not much with equality. If you look at any pictures of the princesses they never look at each other. Apparently the reasoning behind it, is to keep them separate rather than unifying them as a franchise.

Disney also does little to appreciate and acknowledge Elena of Avalor, the Latin American Princess. Although she has her own television series, she has not been promoted and put along side the other princesses.

Even Anna and Elsa, who have taken the world by storm with "Frozen" are not techincally considered Disney Princesses based on the requirements

Hopefully in the years to come, Disney princesses can be stripped of requirements, and can be unified despite their diversity.