The Princess Blog's Five-Year Blogiversary Extravaganza!
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Can you believe I've been writing articles about princesses for five years? I still remember posting a list of 100 princesses for my 100th post, and now I have over 600 posts and counting! That's a lot of princesses! For most blogiversaries, I've shared free or deeply discounted Kindle copies of my books, but unfortunately, I haven't written anything new this year. Instead, I've been busy getting settled in my new castle, so I filmed this mini-music video in some of my favorite rooms as a video tour. I hope you enjoy it! Feel free to pause it to get a closer look at some of my new furnishings and old memorabilia. Let me know how many princess easter eggs you can spot in the background!
As for what's next, I'm very excited to announce that I've applied to be a big sister through the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America in the hopes of sharing my experiences with a special little girl, attending more princess events, and getting a better grasp on the modern generation's perspective of princess media. I hope that this experience can inspire me to write more princess stories that will appeal to the youth of today. I know I'm way behind on my Story Saturdays, so let me know if that's something you would like to see more of. It would also be nice to spend time with someone who gets just as excited about princesses as I do!
As another special treat, I reached out on my Facebook page for suggestions about what to post for my 5th anniversary. One of my favorites was the five reasons that princesses are still relevant and important. Here are my thoughts on the subject. Feel free to share yours in the comments as well!
1. They Inspire Us To Be Our Best Selves.
As we get older, it's easy to get set in our ways and forget the things that motivate us to work hard, chase after our dreams, and spread love everywhere we go. Young and older people alike need these stories to remind them to keep fighting for their happily ever after.
2. It's Harder Than Ever to Remember to Be Kind and Courageous.
In today's politically charged society, many people get caught up in arguments both online and in real life with others who refuse to accept to any opinion outside of their own. Princesses remind us to be patient and listen to others with respect and understanding so we can live in a more harmonious world.
3. Escapism Is an Important Aspect of Daily Life.
Life is hard, and it only gets harder with age. It is important and healthy to spend a little time each day imagining a place that's just a little more magical, grand, and loving than the one we live in. These little bursts of escapism can help us relax and reduce stress throughout the rest of our day.
4. They Let Girls Know It's Okay to Still Be Girls.
In a society where gender fluidity is being encouraged more than ever, princesses validate feminine girls to be themselves and not feel like they need to change to match the societal norms. Of course, there are plenty of modern princesses for girls who feel more masculine as well.
5. They Make Us Feel Empowered.
By watching princesses live out our dreams, we can feel reassured that our big decisions like moving away from home, attending a big social event, applying for a competitive job, or starting a family can lead to our own happily ever afters, taking the fear and anxiety out of these decisions. After all, Cinderella never would have escaped her stepfamily if she didn't go to the ball, Ariel never would have been able to explore the human world if she didn't trade her voice to Ursula, and Tiana never would have met Naveen if she didn't work so diligently to save up for her restaurant.
I hope you've enjoyed reading my posts for these past five years. I've loved seeing all of your recommendations and hearing your opinions, even if they differ from my own. Let me know if you have a favorite subject to read about. I have no plans to stop blogging. Princesses are an ever-expanding and timeless subject that will always provide new media to explore. Maybe someday we'll even see some new fairy tale adaptations. Thank you for sticking with me these past five years, and here's to five more!
I love this post!!! I'm honored you chose my idea to write about :) As I get older (in my thirties already) I find life does indeed stay challenging and it's a constant temptation to turn into more of a villain. It would be easy to give into despair, bitterness, anger and coldheartedness. I find I still need Princesses on a regular basis to encourage hope in a happily ever after, dreams coming true (when many haven't), and as a model to be kind and generous at all times. Thank you for sharing a Princess mentality with me and for this community <3
I completely feel you on the villain sentiment! I lose my patience a lot more than I care to admit lately. Thank you for the fantastic suggestion! I'm glad you enjoy reading my posts. Take care! :)
Sugar said…
Wow you sound very similar to rapunzel when you sing! I think one important thing about princesses is that they teach you that being nice isn't a weakness, that not every girl should be a kick ass princess and that's okay, and that a nice dress and sparkly tiara can be a symbol of strength as much as an armor and a sword. I'm glad I found this site!
Yesterday, the Starz network released the series finale of The Spanish Princess , concluding The White Queen trilogy of miniseries that began in 2013. Based on a book series called The Cousins' War by Phillippa Gregory , the trilogy covers the women who stood behind the men in power in the English monarchy from 1464 to the 1530s, preceding the first two sovereign queens, Mary and Elizabeth. The White Queen , The White Princess , and The Spanish Princess grant us a rare opportunity to see what life was like for medieval monarchs. Watching them reminded me of why I prefer the fairy tale versions of royalty. Those stories do not contain the gory deaths, gruesome births, and invasive politics that historical dramatizations like these exemplify. In fact, I had very little interest in watching the second season of The Spanish Princess until I watched some historical videos and learned that the king that Catherine of Aragon was married to was none other than King Henry VIII, who was
Today is a major accomplishment for me. I started this blog 100 days ago, and I've managed to write a new post in it every day since then. Some of the topics were easier to come up with than others. I also had to go back and edit some after the fact due to poor proofreading. Speaking of which, I'm really sorry about the disastrous short story from my first Story Saturday post . The whole thing was written on my phone on the way to a Mermaid Art Show event in San Diego, so I was a little distracted. I promise to put more effort into future Story Saturdays, which should be easier now that I will no longer be writing new posts every day. Don't worry, though. I will still keep everyone informed of the latest princess news and review all the new princess movies and specials. Without further ado, in celebration of my 100th post, here is a list of 100 princesses with all of the posts I've made about them (in no particular order). Thank you so much for reading my blog. 1-11:
The latest Time Princess visual novel is a good old British murder mystery around the turn of the 20th century that takes place aboard a train. It incorporates plenty of popular tropes while also adding some new twists the genre. It is most similar in tone to the previous release from this game called Have You Seen Claudia? right down to the "gotcha" twist ending. The character and plot development are some of the best this game has released in recent months, which shows appear that their writers all have different strengths. I would have loved to see this level of worldbuilding in one of their fantasy stories. The visual novel was well-written and would have been very enjoyable if it hadn't been for the secret ending. You play as Bianca Finch, a businesswoman and aspiring actress who purchases a VIP ticket for the wrong train at the wrong time. She soon finds herself wrapped up in a conspiracy revolving around the murder of another actress named Chloe Swann that had t
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Mulan is a wonderful animated feature that was released by Disney in 1998 . Showcasing a young woman who broke tradition by disguising herself as a male soldier and saved all of China in the process, it is, in my opinion, one of the most empowering films for girls on the market. Yet, with my reputation as a self-proclaimed princess expert, there is one burning question that people are always asking me: "Is Mulan a princess?" She was not born to a king or queen, nor did she marry a prince, so why is her visage so often plastered alongside the other royal heroines ? The short answer is that she's not a princess, but she is a Disney Princess. Why aren't the two mutually exclusive? The answer to that is a bit more complicated. When the Disney Princess line was launched in 2001 , it initially focused on the main six--Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, and Jasmine. However, since Jasmine was the only heroine of color in the line, it expanded shortly therea
Princess Power is a new animated Netflix series for preschoolers based on the celebrity-endorsed picture book Princesses Wear Pants . I would like to state up front that I am definitely not the target audience for this series, but there has not been a new American animated princess series in at least three years, so we're doing this one. To be fair, one of my favorite shows of all time, Sofia the First has the same target age group, but I would argue that series was written with a wider breadth of audience in mind because it spent so much more time than it needed to on worldbuilding, music, and character development. Princess Power is a lot more obvious about its demographic, and that's fine, but as a result, it has little to offer for adults, parents, or older kids. Princess Power focuses on four girls from the "fruitdoms," whose names all start with the same letter as their kingdom's fruit. Penny comes from the Pineapple Kingdom, Rita from the Raspberry Kingdo
Dominic's Disappearance is the latest visual novel in the Time Princess app . I beat this story a week ago and got held up by my cruise , so this is not going to be one of my better reviews. I may get some details wrong, and for that, I apologize in advance. This is not one of my favorite stories in Time Princess. As implied by the game's title, I usually hope for new stories from this game based on fairy tales or history . I don't know why they keep releasing these dark murder mysteries that don't seem to have the same appeal to the game's target audience. This latest entry is pretty depressing but not quite as much as the last one. It tells the story of a girl who is searching for her missing brother. When it becomes clear that no one is going to solve the mystery of Dominic's disappearance for her, Sandra decides to take the matter of finding her brother into her own hands and infiltrates the last place he was seen--an all-boys academy. Donning a disguis
I've been seeing several viral posts recently about historical fashion lately. One was a gallery of women's fashion every year from 1784 to 1970 , and another was a video re-enactment of how women got dressed in the 18th century . These got me thinking about some of my favorite princess fashions. Though princesses are not known to be historically accurate , their fashions drew inspiration from many different places, and history is one of them. If you take a look at the way fashion has evolved over time, you can get an idea of which parts inspired the princess movies and which parts were altered. Something that surprised me in the re-enactment was how many pieces were assembled on a woman to give the appearance of a single dress. Today, most dresses are a single piece, but historically, gowns consisted of a corset bodice and a large skirt with a crinoline underneath. This was something I also noticed about Disney's theme park princesses . Though they look like one dr
When I heard that Disney was building a new ship called the Disney Wish with three princess shows, a Frozen restaurant, and princess-themed staterooms, I just knew I had to find a way onboard. Last weekend, my wish came true at last! I embarked on a magical three-night cruise with stops at Port Canaveral in Florida, Nassau in the Bahamas, and Disney's private island, Castaway Cay, and I'm here to tell you everything you need to know about the Disney Wish. Make sure you have plenty of time to read because this will be a long one! For your convenience and mine, I've divided this post into five sections: The Ship, Shows, Dining, Characters, and the App, including a new onboard game called Uncharted Adventure . I will not be discussing the ports of call in this post because they did not have any princesses nor did I spend much time at them, but I would be happy to answer any additional questions that I didn't cover in this post in the comments. The Ship The moment I ste
Last year, I attended a Princess Tea that was presented by the Cedar Park High School Choir and was pleased to learn that it is an annual event. That year, the theme was A Winter's Ball. This month, the event rolled around again, and I was excited to see more of the beautiful costumes and harmonizing from the talented team behind this show. This year's theme was Rapunzel's Surprise Birthday Party, which sounded super exciting because Rapunzel loves celebrating her birthday! The event is mainly a concert performed by a different group of choir students each year with some light dialogue between songs that form a story to connect them like a play. It's really neat how they're able to come up with a new story each year, but it's mainly just an excuse to sing a bunch of princess songs. The event setup was similar to last year, with student helpers walking around in mouse ears to seat guests at their tables. The entryway to the event was a big castle archway with
Comments
As I get older (in my thirties already) I find life does indeed stay challenging and it's a constant temptation to turn into more of a villain. It would be easy to give into despair, bitterness, anger and coldheartedness. I find I still need Princesses on a regular basis to encourage hope in a happily ever after, dreams coming true (when many haven't), and as a model to be kind and generous at all times. Thank you for sharing a Princess mentality with me and for this community <3
I think one important thing about princesses is that they teach you that being nice isn't a weakness, that not every girl should be a kick ass princess and that's okay, and that a nice dress and sparkly tiara can be a symbol of strength as much as an armor and a sword.
I'm glad I found this site!