Every little girl’s dream is to grow up and become a princess, find Prince Charming, run off into the sunset, and live happily ever after. Well, maybe they shouldn’t. Every time young girls watch their favorite princess, they learn many things they should not believe or hope for in their future. 

Growing up, I wanted to be a princess. Sometimes, I still do. I spent countless hours watching Cinderella over and over, wishing I had a fairy godmother and a Prince Charming. And, of course, what girl doesn’t want her very own glass slippers? What girls don’t understand or see is that the message in most of these fairytales is to be beautiful, have your prince save you, change who you are, or forget everything because of true love. 

Is that really what we want to believe as we grow older, start to date and become women? Do we want to be a princess? Or, do we want to be a strong woman who can be her own person, with or without true love? 

Cinderella. Cinderella allowed her evil stepmother and stepsisters to treat her horribly after the death of her father. She did not stand up to them or fight for a better life; she stayed and did whatever they said. Then, she has a fairy godmother who gives her a pretty dress and some fancy, and probably painful shoes, and she sends Cinderella off to a ball. There, the prince is immediately drawn to her because of her beauty. They dance once and have a 15-minute conversation until she must leave at midnight. The prince then goes on to search the kingdom for the beautiful girl he met at the ball with the glass slippers. Cinderella is a pretty blonde who was not wearing a mask, yet the prince allows every girl in the kingdom to try the shoe on. Seriously, dude? Pay attention to the girl you love so much? He finally finds her and saves her from her terrible family, and they go to live happily ever after.  

Snow White and Sleeping Beauty (Aurora). Both are similar in many ways. They are both extremely beautiful and like to sing with birds. Both met their prince for about five minutes and sang with them. Both are put in a deep sleep by an evil queen or witch. They both have a prince who they have known for five minutes who loves them and comes to save them. Why, again? Because they are beautiful? Or because they saw you once upon a dream? Like, what now? But we know it is real because the whole true love’s kiss thing. Thank goodness for that.  

Ariel. Ariel fell for Prince Eric, whom she watched from the ocean because she is a mermaid. She then goes on to give up her voice, gain a pair of legs, and leave her entire family to win his heart. They spend time together for three days, her not talking (lucky him) and then falls madly in love and defeats some weird sea witch octopus thing as a side note. Of course, they live happily ever after, except the whole now she can talk again thing. 

These girls could not save themselves; they did not even try. They had their beauty and won their prince. Ariel changed herself completely just to be who Eric wanted. So are girls supposed to admire this, dream to be this? What they are learning is that as long as you are pretty, a guy will take care of you, and if you need to, change yourself to make him happy. What kind of message is that? 

Be who you are, love who you are, fight for yourself, be strong, be independent. Just, please, don’t be like Cinderella.