Princesses and Gender Norms

I tried not to make you a girly girl. So many moms dress their little girls up in so many ruffles and bows, and that just wasn't our style. You had a couple of princess dresses, but they just looked silly with your bald head! Besides, what if you ended up identifying with a different gender? I didn't want to push anything on you. I wanted to present several options and let you choose based on your identity.

Then we went to visit your cousin Keira at Disney World, and it was all over.

Keira's mommy works for Disney World, so they have a lot of Disney things. You and Keira spent several days playing princesses together and watching princess movies on tv. When we got back home, you couldn't stop talking about these beautiful creatures.

My friend Tiffany and I took you and her kids to a singalong at the Fox Theatre earlier in the summer. They do this summertime movie series, and several of them are musicals. We saw the Sound of Music, and you sat still for some of it. When we saw that they were showing Frozen later in the summer, we knew how much you kids would love it.

You were excited to see the movie, and to spend time with your friends Alba and Donovan, but you were more excited to see all of these little girls dressed as princesses. You seemed thrilled to learn that there were so many people out there who shared your interest! Between that day and your time with Keira, you were officially hooked.

Every day we either read a princess book or watched some of a princess movie or played with princess toys. Some days, you even wore princess dresses...wherever we went:

I'm a bit late in writing this post, so I can safely say that you still adore princesses to this day. You love putting on jewelry and having me fix your hair and looking at yourself in the mirror. But you also like fire trucks and superheroes and oh my goodness do you love reptiles. There's a lot of talk in the world today about gender neutrality, even when it comes to our children. I really don't want to get into it too much (especially because I'm hoping that by the time you read this, it won't be a thing anymore), but I will say this: you don't like things because you're a girl; you like things because you're you. I was so worried about pushing princesses on you, but you chose princesses all on your own. I would never say "don't play with that; that's for boys" so why was I afraid to let you be a girl? I'm glad you're so confident in your interests and your choices. Thanks for leading the way.