Worrying about princesses is a “princess problem”

Virginia Postrel explains why girls are still fascinated with being princesses.

For all its Victorian stoicism and sense of duty, this princess dream shares the mixture of openness and elitism that gives princesses their contemporary appeal. Like the superhero, the princess has a special identity and destiny. She is more than an ordinary girl. But her value is not determined by playground hierarchies. You don’t have to be popular to be a princess. You can be an iconoclast, even an outcast, but you must be worthy. You must be good. In this version, as my then-5-year-old niece once wrote me, “Anyone can be a PRINCESS.”

Learn more: read Francis Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess online.

Tip from the Instapundit.