Check it Out: A Storybook that Proves Princesses Can Save Themselves, Too

When we hear “princess,” we think of a delicate maiden in distress in a long gown, trapped in a tower guarded by a ferocious dragon, and waiting for a prince to come rescue her -- largely due to the movies and fairy tales we watched growing up.

The children’s book “The Princess Who Saved Herself” is out to change that. The book is created by comics writer Greg Pak and is adapted from a song of the same title by singer-songwriter Jonathan Coulton. Illustrations were done by Takeshi Miyazawa.

“My favorite thing about Greg’s adaptation of the story is how he expanded on the princess’s method of solving problems. She faces things head-on, and she solves problems mostly by being a good person with a positive attitude. We could all stand to get better at that,” said Coulton.

The princess in this story, named Gloria Cheng Epstein Takahara de la Garza Champion, is a multiracial strong female protagonist who is very much able to save herself without any prince’s help.

She lives in a castle by a waterfall with a pink and purple wall. She doesn’t like to wear socks and loves rock ‘n’ roll, as told by Coulton’s song lyrics.

And she definitely can handle dragons on her own without anybody’s help.

Coulton got the idea for the song when his daughter, to his surprise, started getting into princesses and pink things. “I certainly wasn’t pushing the princess agenda on her, she just found it and latched on,” he told Buzzfeed.

“So I wanted to tell a story about a little girl who was a princess, but who didn’t need any help — my daughter was also probably in a phase of insisting she could do everything by herself,” Coulton said.

Pak not only wants his book to be for girls, but to be read by boys as well. “Fiction is one of the best ways for people of different backgrounds to learn how to identify with and empathize with each other. The idea of boys looking up to the princess as an awesome hero makes me very happy,” said Pak

The book was a project on Kickstarter and was fully funded in March 2015 raising $111,759 – $90,000 more than Coulton and Pak’s initial goal.

The book is available for pre-order here.  


Source:
April 15, 2015. "This Children’s Book Wants To Teach That Princesses Don’t Need Saving". buzzfeed.com

Photos are from the same source.