In 2011, Peggy Orenstein wrote a book about it called Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture. Disney princesses in particular work as the engine of a massive marketing campaign that fuels a $4 billion industry. If you want to sell something to little girls right now, chances are you'll slap a princess on it. 'And they brought out, at the Korean restaurant, a princess plate to try to entice her to eat,' Ragsdale says, laughing. For example, she describes a recent visit to a Korean restaurant where her daughter refused to try the unfamiliar food.

Kami Ragsdale, a mom at the party, says these little girls are so princess-obsessed that it's typical for grown-ups to use princesses as leverage. Every 4-year-old girl present is drawn to her like filings to a magnet. 'Look at those beautiful dresses!' coos a grown woman in a costumey blond wig and shimmering gown, aka a 'real' princess. For little girls, princesses hold roughly the same value that tulips did for the Dutch back in the 1500s, and that princess mania is sure to get a boost with the new Pixar movie Brave, which stars a Scottish princess named Merida.įor a keyhole glimpse into the pink and glittery world of pre-K princess culture, consider the scene at a recent princess-themed birthday party in a suburb of Washington, D.C.

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