Even My Two-Year-Old Wants to be a Princess

My daughter doesn’t know who Kate Middleton is, but at two she already wants to be a princess. She loves pink and dress-up and to order us around. Her favourite movie is Cinderella (what were we thinking buying the DVD?). At a gift shop the other day she raced straight to a shelf of tiaras and tried them all on before I could stop her.

I have nothing against princesses. It’s how they become princesses that bothers me. At least in the fairy tales it seems that being pretty and nice is enough. I want my daughter to be pretty and nice, of course, but I also want her to be curious and funny and athletic and artistic and brave. I don’t want her hanging out hoping for a better life.

In London, Kate Middleton and her sister are known as “The Wisteria Sisters”, for their ability to climb socially. The press rarely tells us much else about Kate other than that she’s a nice middle class girl who looks fabulous in clothes, plays tennis and sails, and has plenty of patience. She met Prince William a decade ago at University and was later uncharitably dubbed “Waity Katie”.

What we rarely hear about are her interests – supposedly she likes photography and painting – or how she spends her days. It’s seldom mentioned if she’s ever held a job, though of course she has one now.

The whole princess myth needs an update. Even beauty queens these days are med students and aspiring scientists and judges.

Then Kate Middleton entered Westminster Abbey radiant and waving and gorgeous and left a Princess, or technically the Duchess of Cambridge, but really Princess Catherine has a nice ring to it. You couldn’t help but get caught up in the magic.

My daughter and I watched the ceremony cuddled up on the couch — me a bit more keen than she. She’s more excited about the street parties starting outside our London door in a couple of hours.

When you think about it, Cinderella’s not so bad either. In fact, she’s quite appealing in the stylish ‘50s Disney version with her slim waist and natural charm and it is kind of cool the way she talks to animals.

Who am I kidding anyway? I wore a tiara on my wedding day. I felt just like a princess.

Photos by Gene Hunt and americanistadechiapas.

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