I had to go look this up, but Frances Hodgson wrote a story called The Little Princess, (there is a movie version with Shirley Temple which is not my favorite but probably the one more people have seen) A little girl has to go from pampered student at a private school to servant, waiting on the same girls she thought were her friends, when her father is MIA after a battle and believed dead.
The other girls treat her badly and the teacher treats her very badly. She makes friends with a house servant and shares the secret of her positive attitude: her father has told her that all girls are princesses.
I watched this movie with my own daughter and I think it stuck with her - not that all girls should act like spoiled brats or wear fancy clothes.
Instead it gives us a new kind of confidence, a sense of belonging to this amazing community of women and the right to carry ourselves with dignity and the obligation to act with kindness.
I think Disney is doing something positive and empowering girls to go for their dreams, to forge ahead, unafraid, and to stand up for what they know to be right.
