Hey fam! I'm finally getting to the next post in our Disney Princess series! This one's about the first Disney Princess whose movie came out 1937, originally voiced by Disney Legend Adriana Caselotti, the princess I watched every day when I was a child, my princess, Snow White.
Okay, so let's start at the very beginning of Snow White, how she was the princess and her mother died. And then her father remarried and then her father died. And then after her father died her stepmother, well, I would say that her stepmother abused her. But that is not the right word for it. She treated her as less than she was. Dang, that kind of blows me away. She wasn't just forced to do chores and wear worn-out clothes and take care of everything. She was a princess being forced to do all those things. Her stepmother would have her believe that she is less than she is.
First reason Snow White is a hecka strong princess: no matter what people would have her believe, or no matter the lack of people caring about her, she still thought highly enough of herself to carry on. Too many people don't have this attitude. Everyone has natural insecurity, but dang, if you're going to have insecurities about yourself, make them based off of what you think of yourself, not what other people think of you. Carry yourself no matter what people will have you do.
And that's not all, friends. What's even better than that is the fact that she probably had an incredible life, the life of a princess no less, then is thrown into this chaos without love and still found a way to remain sweet and innocent. Beauty and innocence was a choice she made; she could've easily given in to being treated like a peasant but she remained beautiful. Choosing innocence is the strongest thing you can do. Ever.
Alright, so that happens, she meets the prince, and he's in love with her and he's cute but Snow White ain't about that life, she's too shy. The queen, her stepmother, desperately wants to be the most beautiful person in the kingdom but the Magic Mirror constantly informs her that Snow White is the most beautiful. This makes the queen crazy jealous and so she tells the huntsman to go kill Snow White. The huntsman goes to do it but he can't, because Snow White is that beautiful of a person. But get this, he tells her that it was the queen's idea. And Snow White is surprised.
Guys, that is so fantastic! This woman that never loved her, that forced her to have less than she was worth, that mistreated her as soon as no one was in her way anymore, wanted to kill her. And she is surprised about this. No matter how horribly that person treated her, she still chose to believe the best about them. I wonder if she was even so pure and beautiful that she was oblivious to the queen's evil personality, but when I think on it there is no way you can be blind to someone mistreating you like that. She just decided that she was going to think good things about her stepmother no matter how bad she was. Holding grudges isn't the stuff, guys. You feel so much better when you don't do that. And to be honest, the strong decision is to choose to forgive and let yourself heal, because if you think that there are some people that have never had a hard time forgiving someone, you are dead wrong. They just know it's the better choice.
The huntsman tells Snow White to run, so she runs. This is where things start to get real. Snow White shows us that strong people are human.
We thought Snow White's life fell apart when her parents died. Now, she can't go back home, or she will surely die, as well as the huntsman. She has nowhere to go. She runs into the woods, and when people get upset, everything seems a million times worse. Snow White was terrified, and so being alone in the woods was terrifying. Snow White completely breaks down.
But this is why I love this. Because Snow White breaks down and all the animals in the woods gather around and are like "Oh my gosh, what's going on?" And Snow White realizes all these animals are watching her sob her face off and what does she say? "I'm sorry. I'm so ashamed."
Call me crazy, but I think that is the strongest thing in the world. Everyone has moments of weakness, needs them even, but when you completely lose control of life and realize it later, it's okay to realize you were weak. And the strong thing is realizing it and being ashamed about it and deciding to be better. Strength is not being perfect all the time. It is knowing who you are and acknowledging that you are a human being that is weak and being sorry about that and choosing to move on from that and forgive yourself and make it better.
Because Snow White does make it better. She picks herself up and makes herself happy and she and the animals go into the woods and they find a house. Snow White is choosing to be strong yet again by taking control of her own life and deciding that she is going to rebuild her life and take shelter in this cottage! I guess she didn't figure that someone probably lived in a cottage that was just chilling there, but that's okay.
She uses her skills to clean the house that's a total mess. Judging by the things around her in the house she figures the house belongs to children. Which she finds very nice, but she then wonders where their mother is. She realizes, they probably don't have one. That saddens her terribly.
Most people feel bad for orphans. Considering Snow White has lost both of her parents and her stepmother turned out to be evil, naturally she would feel this way even more. But with no thought of herself, or her situation, or anything at all that has been going on in her life, Snow White laments about that then decides to help them with their housework. Is that not the sweetest thing?!
So Snow White is tired so she goes to sleep and the dwarves, the residents of the cottage, come home. They can clearly see that someone has cleaned their house. They go upstairs and Snow White is sleeping in their beds. She wakes up and is surprised. She begs them to let her stay, and they do once they find out she'll cook and clean for them. Guys, self-reliance is just the coolest thing to me. Working to get what you need and taking care of yourself. Dang, that's awesome.
Snow White took joy in her new life. Meanwhile, the queen was still trying to ruin it, because she found out Snow White was still alive. She made a poisoned apple that would kill Snow White.
As anyone would, the dwarves grow to love Snow White and after all the time she is living with them, they finally find out why she's there. They say she's not allowed to talk to anyone while the dwarves are at work. Well, one day while the dwarves are at work, an old woman comes to the door and is let into the cottage because Snow White is willing to help anyone who is hurting; the old woman was attacked by the animals who knew she was the evil queen. Once she is inside, the queen convinces Snow White that if she takes a bite of the apple any wish she has will come true. So Snow White takes the apple and dies.
After all of that, the dwarves chase the queen off a cliff, they mourn the loss of Snow White, but her true love the prince wakes her with true love's kiss and they live happily ever after.
Taylor Swift once said, "To me, fearless is living in spite of those things that scare you to death." I feel like that perfectly represents Snow White's story. No matter what hardship she was facing, she just continued to be her beautiful self. That is real strength. It is doing you and not letting anyone break you. Not letting anyone break YOU. Not letting anyone take who you are.
I'll have the next one for you all soon! Love ya, mean it!
--Lizzo
