A Speculation on Princesses

Ella Grace is in a serious princess stage. She's been in it for a long time, to be honest, and I don't see her coming out of it any time soon. (But who knows?)  It all started with a 5 Minute Disney Princess Stories book one of her little friends gave her for her first birthday.  At the time, it probably weighed about as much as she did, so it fascinated me that that was the book she always chose to look through. She'd flip through the pages completely on her own. And then one day shortly after her interest piqued in the book, she became obsessed with the "Arel" pages. She'd always beg me to read her the Ariel stories.  Lots of little girls seem to gravitate to that half-girl, half-fish creation by Hans Christian Anderson and Disney, and mine is one of them.

I was thinking this morning about how interesting it is that she is so obsessed with princesses. I had  never bought her a Disney princess toy or paraphernalia of any sort. She had never seen a princess movie. The first princess encounter was with that book she received from a friend on her birthday. When we'd read stories, I never picked it out to read to her. She went to it. Every time. (I wouldn't pick it out today still...those stories are not "5 Minutes" long! haha!;)  Today, she has a variety of indoor toys to choose from: blocks, cars, play food, animals, etc. And while she enjoys them all, her favorite seems to be the princesses. (She always prefers to be outside though. She'd take the trampoline, the park, the scooter, or the tricycle over princesses any day.) So why?  What is it about princesses that enchants and captivates even young little girls? This was on my mind this morning.

There are studies that show that even newborn babies are drawn to more attractive faces, so maybe that's part of it. Also, princesses (or at least, the protagonist/ heroine sort) are always portrayed as kind, warm, nurturing, and loving.  Studies have also shown time and again that young children need that kind of warm and nurturing love to not only thrive, but to survive.

There are many other great qualities that can be found in the characters of the Disney princesses that I wouldn't mind one bit my daughter gleaning from: bravery, cleverness, intelligence, independent-thinking, and goodness of heart.

But with all of that aside, I thought, maybe...perhaps...the common and widespread love little girls have for princesses has a deeper underlying reason.

Now, I realize what I'm about to say may seem a bit far-fetched, and maybe even ludicrous to some of you, but just humor me here for a minute. 

Maybe the young's love for princesses has something to do with memory, and with their pure and still yet-undefiled confidence and sense of self/ knowledge of who they truly are. I believe that we all lived in heaven with God before we came to earth. All of us. We knew Him and loved Him there as our Father. There, the God of the universe individually nurtured us, taught us, and loved us immensely. We were His children and He was our Father. We knew this and it filled our souls with purpose and joy. He was (IS) the Almighty, and was inestimably greater than any king who would walk the earth. And yet we were His children. That meant something. It meant a lot. We knew our very natures were divine and that our worth was incalculable to Him, and His opinion was the only one that mattered.  He valued us and loved us beyond measure.  Being that our Father was an actual king, that made us, His children, royalty, as well. We are all daughters and sons of a King.

When we came to earth, a veil was placed over our minds, and our memories of life before we came here were washed away.  This is all part of His great Plan (which is truly great).  But it is commonly thought that little children, so pure and still so fresh from heaven, keep certain truths in their hearts from their pre-earth life.  So maybe something about this whole love of princesses has a deeper meaning than we realize. Maybe identifying with princesses has something to do with knowing of the royalty she has within her. Maybe it all resonates in that little heart of hers.

So for me personally, when I say that this little girl

is a princess, I am not saying it just because I think she is cute/ sweet/ funny/ ____ or because I am heavily biased. It is because she actually is a princess! (And I love to think about that!) But definitely the fact that she is so into princesses right now highlights that further in my mind's eye.

But who knows?  It was just a passing thought and an idea I had as a helped my children clean their rooms this morning. :)