Opinion: National Princess Week Teaches Girls What Being a Princess Really Means

National retail chain Target, in collaboration with the Walt Disney Company and actress Julie Andrews, will host National Princess Week April 22-28 — a week-long event for children to celebrate their inner princess through Disney’s Princess Line of movies, books, apparel and toys.

With movements such as #MeToo and Time’s Up promoting women to speak up, National Princess Week can serve as a foundation that teaches young girls to speak up, embrace their worth, feel empowered by our modern-day princesses and Disney’s female characters and discover the many possibilities of what they can be when they grow up.

According to the #MeToo website, the movement was established in 2006 by Tarana Burke to help survivors of sexual violence, particularly young women, find pathways to healing and let other survivors know that they are not alone.

National Princess Week coincides with the #MeToo movement because the event promotes ways for young girls to empower one another by using their voices to share the true meaning of being a modern-day princess.

Andrews mentioned in her article “15 Tips to Be a Modern-Day Princess” for the Target Corporation that National Princess Week is more than the dresses and the tea parties. This event introduces children to practice humanitarian work by being charitable and encouraging them to volunteer at their favorite charities.

Perfect examples of the modern-day princess that have contributed their time in different countries doing humanitarian work are Princess Diana, Kate Middleton and upcoming Princess Meghan Markle, who was also vocal during the #MeToo movement.

In February, Markle spoke in her first Royal Foundation Forum. Markle said #MeToo should not be about women finding their voices but about empowering them to use it and that people should be urged to listen.

In “Teatime with Julie Andrews” featured on Target’s website, Andrews said National Princess Week is a time for children to create muscle memory that encourages children to also expand their minds with possibilities of what they can be.

Andrews, having portrayed numerous Disney characters herself, broke the traditional female character stereotypes through her portrayal of characters such as Mary Poppins and Queen Clarice Rinaldi in “The Princess Diaries.”

As female characters in Disney movies have developed over the years, the common theme of Disney princess movies was that true love comes from loving what is on the inside — character.

And in the process of Disney princesses and heroines such as Mulan, Belle, Moana and Jasmine finding themselves, they used their voices to defeat the norms, spoke out and acted upon what they knew they were called to do – much of what we as women in our nation are doing right now.

Though many men and women in our nation are publically announcing their stories and helping our nation progress, there is still much to be done.

National Princess Week is the week to let our girls know that we hear and care for them, to teach them to believe in themselves, to pursue the endless possibilities of what they can be, and to give them the opportunity to not only look and act like a princess, but also feel like a princess.