This little girl loves Brave.
She calls her “Brave,” not “Merida,” and she calls her daddy, “Da” because that’s how Brave does it.
If you ask her who Brave’s prince is, she’s quick to tell you that she doesn’t have one.
She pretends to do archery and she wants to ride a horse like “Angus.” She pronounces that with the Scottish accent.
Like all little kids, she tries to emulate her heroes.
She also loves running outside and collecting pine cones.
She loves hitting balls with her wiffle ball bat and visiting the butterfly gardens to take pictures.
She spends most of her time sitting at our table writing stories, and quite a few star Merida.
She was Merida for Halloween.
She believes she’s smart and beautiful and kind.
She knows it’s most important to be nice and that this is what Jesus wants us to be.
Like all of us, she has an uphill battle to maintain this sense of security and self worth in this media saturated world. She’ll face magazines and television shows and movies and friends who all tell her that to be good enough she has to be more. They’ll tell her to dress for other people, to see herself through their eyes, to judge her worth based on what the boys think of her. They’ll tell her a woman must be young and beautiful and sexy. Intelligence will be secondary and creativity and assertiveness won’t even make the list.
She has an uphill battle, Disney. Don’t make it harder.
If you are unfamiliar with the changes Disney has made to the Merida character now that she is officially being inducted into the line of princesses, check out this article. The good news is that Disney needs us more than we need them.
Aww! So cute. My favorite princesses was Jasmine and Ariel. Oh did I want to be them so bad! Even though I was such a tomboy when I was younger. If Merida was around in my day, I would so relate to her. I never seen Brave but did read that article, I prefer the old Merida, the adventurous one not the prissy one. It’s ok for girls to be daring and brave! Why focus on the materialistic things at such a young age. I hope Disney reverts Merida back to how she originally was.
I can’t believe they want to make Merida into a come-hither princess. I was so very happy that my daughters had a non-sexualized Disney princess. At last! Four-year olds should not be dreaming about a prince exclusively and Merida was the one who broke the mold.