The Princess Blog

I recently sent out a survey  on several of my social media accounts to get a better idea of what types of posts you would like to read on The Princess Blog. One of you requested reviews of princess content from black creators . It just so happened that I had a new adaptation of "The Little Mermaid" on my reading list by a black author that I was dying to get started on. I review many "Little Mermaid' adaptations  and even wrote my own , yet I never get tired of reading them becuase the story is so versatile. Will she end up with the prince ? How does she communicate ? Is she a mermaid or a selkie ? Does she already have experience as a human  or is their world completely new to her ? The Dark Mermaid  by Christina L. Barr  is a refreshing and expertly crafted new take on Hans Christian Andersen's tale  that explores the risk the mermaid underwent by chasing after her dreams. It also builds a rich undersea setting that rivals the land of Sirenea in the Fi...

In 2008, the Philippines released a mermaid princess telenovela that was based on a popular graphic novel by Mars Ravelo in 1952. Dyesebel is loosely based on the story of "The Little Mermaid"  with a few distinct differences. It was Dyesebel's mother, Queen Lucia, who first fell in love with a human and left the underwater world of Sirenea to be with him, sacrificing her memories of her life as a mermaid in the process. Dyesebel was born on land, but because of her tail, her mother returned her to the sea, entrusting her to her best friend, Banak, to raise her. Her human father, Tino, was murdered by humans who believed that mermaids were bad luck. Unaware of the circumstances of her birth, Dyesebel grew up curious about the human world until one day, she fell in love with a human and was doomed to follow in her mother's footsteps. The 2008 adaptation of Dyesebel is performed in the native Filipino language, Tagalog, but I was able to watch it with English subtit...

From  mermaid margaritas  to  mermaid cafés , mermaids are huge right now. I touched on this topic a bit in  my "Little Mermaid" post , but mermaids are not limited solely to retellings of Hans Christian Andersen's most famous tale. The concept of a "mermaid princess" is almost as popular as a  "faery princess,"  though mermaids do offer more limited mobility when it comes to playing dress-up. Mermaids are everywhere these days from books to movies to TV series, and Asian culture loves them too. Let's start with Ariel , my favorite mermaid princess. She is my favorite for a multitude of reasons. Most mermaids are blonde, but Ariel dares to be different with her fiery red hair and passion for the surface world. Her thirst for knowledge is highly contagious because of how excited she gets every time she discovers something new. For this reason, I think she's a fantastic role model for girls. In the 1989 movie , she dared to defy her powerful...

Today I'm going to tell you about my favorite fairy tale, "The Little Mermaid" by Hans Christian Andersen . The history of this princess tale is quite different from Snow White  and  Cinderella . Instead of being passed down verbally for generations before getting transcribed, "The Little Mermaid" was an original story that Hans wrote about unrequited love  based on his own tragic experiences with romance . It was inspired by the story of  Undine  by Baron Fouqué, about a mythological water nymph who must marry a human to obtain a soul, but will die if the human is unfaithful. Though "The Little Mermaid" had fewer direct adaptations than Snow White or Cinderella, it inspired many films and TV shows about mermaids who either fell in love with humans or had the ability to transform into a human. In Denmark sits the statue of the mermaid herself, permanently caught between two forms and two worlds. The most famous version of this story is Disney'...