My dear friend Mary Robinette Kowal tweeted a link to this article the other day and brought it to my attention:
Fairy-Princess Ranks Depleting As Girls Aspire To Be Doctors, Lawyers
Now here’s where the Onion’s Beaureau of Statistics has got a loophole. Yes I am, for all intents and purposes, a Fairy Princess. I have called myself such and have been called by others as such..what more does one need, really? If fairies exist merely because people believe in them, then I am what people believe me to be. It’s as simple as that.
However, I did not always aspire to be a Fairy Princess. In fact, I never did. From the age of ten I wanted to be an actress and an author — two things I already was at the time. (It is far easier to wish for something you already have.) I never wore dresses (ewwbleh), and the one voluminous skirt I owned in my wardrobe was the one I hiked up to my armpits before tying a scarf around my waist. I would then run around the yard hooting and hollering and dancing and speaking in a British accent and claiming to be a gypsy. I was never, EVER going to be a stupid princess. That–just like all those stupid Pretty Pretty Princess games–was an aspiration for girls who obviously didn’t know any better and had no CLUE what real magic was all about.
When it was Halloween, I dressed as a witch. At least THEY knew what magic was all about.
Being a Fairy Princess is more than just wanting to be a Fairy Princess…obviously. It’s a calling. It’s a role you invariably end up filling when your optimism brings rainbows into the darkness of the world. When your smile lights up a room and your laugh is a contagion. It is not enough to WANT to be sunny and beautiful from the inside out…you have to BE it. After that, feel free to wish for whatever it is you already have.
Fairy Princess of the World, cheers to you!!