Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein

Get a fake batik look using Elmer’s glue (look it up online). There’s nothing wrong with loving the rosy color, but introduce other hues to your daughter’s wardrobe.Sick of pink clothing? Have a dye-in with your daughter: Get a package of cheap, white t-shirts and customize them. You might also try his films, “Nausica,” “Castle in the Sky,” “Ponyo” and “The Secret World of Arietty.”īest Alternative-Princess Disney films: Mulan and Mulan 2, which contains the subversive, catchy, princess-questioning song, “I Want to Be Like Other Girls.” Shrek and its sequels also offer a fairyland world with a distinctly atypical princess.ĭon’t take away the pink tutus and tiaras just yet. Take a break from “Frozen” and “Snow White” by watching the early films of Hiyao Miyazaki: “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Kiki’s Delivery Service.” I guarantee they will become favorites.But to directly disrupt the princess industrial complex try some of the ideas below: Obviously, science, music, art and being outside are important.

So while it’s important to limit your daughter’s exposure to the princess culture, you must also find things you can say yes to: books, toys, clothing, activities that will broaden her idea of what it means to be female - and, ideally, unhook it from an obsession with appearance. Peggy Orenstein: You will never convince your daughter that you are giving her more choices about how to be a girl by saying no to everything. NewsHour reporter/producer Sarah McHaney She will be on the PBS NewsHour Tuesday and she’s shared some tips for parents of both girlie-girls and non-girlie-girls on how to approach the princess culture while raising healthy, confident daughters. Peggy Orenstein, author of “Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Frontlines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture,” has written for several years about these questions and navigating the princess culture. Will they become fixated on looking perfect? Will they have unrealistic expectations for what it means to be a woman? Or is it all just a phase, leaving little long-term effects on their child’s self-image? Parents may wonder how all of this will affect their daughters as they navigate the tricky path through to their teens and even beyond. The princess culture - fueled by Disney’s multi-billion dollar stake in it - has a tight grip on mainstream girlhood and it’s not going away.

The Little Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty, Belle and Snow White are bound to come calling at your door on Halloween. The “Frozen” soundtrack from the latest Disney fantasy starring two sister princesses, has topped the charts for nearly three months.

Tutus, tiaras, princess dresses and storybooks selling “happily ever after” line the children’s aisles at every major retailer.

Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein