Thursday, March 31, 2011

The Diabetic Disney Princess

I think there should be a Disney princess with diabetes. I mean I was thinking about it today as I was driving around getting things done and checking them off of my handy dandy "to do list"...and I am really kind of sick of the same old princess story lines. You have your oppressed slave Cinderella who by chance meets a weird little babbling old lady out in the woods who changes her whole world for one evening of dancing. She meets her prince and falls in love...blah blah blah...typical story. Then you have your cast out and abandoned Snow White who moves right in to the dwarfs house in the woods only to spend her days cleaning up after them and talking to birds and squirrels. She eats the apple, awaits her love, and after a kiss...lives happily ever after. There's Ariel the infamous mermaid disobeying her father, meeting a human prince, and falling in love...blah blah blah...are you seeing the pattern here? Don't get me wrong, after having a daughter of my own...I have seen all the princess movies...many, many...MANY times...and I do like them, but as I was thinking of them today, I really wondered why Disney doesn't try to seize the opportunity and make a "princess movie" about a real-life girl. Make one about a girl who is not perfect or searching for her prince and her one true love. Make it instead about a girl who happens to have diabetes. Show her attending the Ball, dressed in her most beautiful gown (made by talking mice of course). Show her passing by the tables full of sweets and treats...show her taking out her trusty sidekick "Gluco" (her blood sugar meter) to check her blood before indulging in a tasty treat. Show her dancing the night away with her princess friends...or even throw in a handsome prince too if you must...show her taking a time out to chat with Gluco again to make sure all is stable. Show her sitting down to a grand dinner seated at the head of the table and taking out her other pal "Sully" (the insulin pen). Show her struggles with diabetes, show how she feels different than all of the other princesses, show how frustrating and stressful this disease can be. Show how she has immense strength, bravery, and endurance. At the end of the movie, wrap it all up in a neat little bow...and show all of the little girls out there watching the movie that yes, this princess is beautiful and friendly like all of her other princess friends...she does have diabetes, and it may get her down in the dumps from time to time...but she will survive anything...and come out on the other side kissing the prince who loves her for who she is, or singing a song out in the woods with her critter friends, or simply riding off into the sunset with her diabetic sidekicks.
This is the kind of Disney princess movie I want my daughter to be able to watch.

2 comments:

  1. Now THAT is a princess I could love! Even as a small girl, I always hated those princess storylines. They bugged the crap out of me. Now, wouldn't you know it, I have a daughter who, as I'm typing this, is playing with Snow White, Cinderella and Tiana. I haven't let her watch any of the movies, because I cringe at the plots and the overall suckiness of the "heroine".

    But I LOVE your idea. That is a movie I could watch.

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  2. trusty sidekick GLUCO. love it!

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