The Princess Phenomenon

Back in January, on a cold and grey Sunday morning, Lindsay invited us all to a Princess Breakfast at the skating rink she works at part time.  Kimberly and I attended, along with Lexi’s other grandparents, her other aunt and her two girl cousins.  We each paid the $10 admission for a breakfast of tasteless powdered dry scrambled eggs, greasy bacon and rubbery pancakes- certainly not fit for any princess.  Little girls ranging in age from 6 months to 7 came dressed in a variety of princess attire- either in their favorite Disney princess costume or with a t-shirt with the word “Princess” in sparkly letters printed across their chest. 

After we ate the pitiful food that was served, the lights went out and the music came on to make way for the parade of princesses, escorted by their princes- from Cinderella, to Belle, to Arielle to Snow White, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.  The little girls greeted these so-called princesses, posed for photos with them, danced alongside them and their princes with their mommies or daddies or aunts or grandmas or grandpas.  I just stood there shaking my head and silently protested this fantasy I felt we force upon our daughters and granddaughters.  “Why should they look up to or aspire to be a princess?”  I told myself, “Why not a strong, independent woman like Hillary Clinton, Golda Meir, Eleanor Roosevelt or even Judge Judy.  Of course all of these women are not known for their beauty or raiment, rather for their brains and their ability to selflessly take care of everyone else.  Those are the women I wanted my granddaughter to admire and revere.

I left the princess breakfast feeling disenchanted, to say the least, and even ranted my cynicism to Kimberly in the car ride to Lindsay and Scott’s house.  Certainly I did not relate to being a princess and was intent on influencing my views on my very precious granddaughter, as well, even though her reaction to the whole thing was sheer bewilderment.  After all, my belief about princesses is that they are weak and helpless and need to be rescued. In my fantasy world my granddaughter could win the Nobel Peace Prize, find the cure for cancer or even be the first Jewish female president- a far cry from expecting a prince to save her and eventually determine her future.

Fast forward almost two months later to last week on a cold and grey Saturday morning, when three generations- my mom, Kimberly and I went to Parsippany, New Jersey to the Sheraton Hotel, coincidentally, its architectural structure resembling a castle.  We were attending an event led my friend, a life coach and best-selling author, Lisa Lieberman-Wang.  The headline to her invitation said, Women come to the castle where every princess belongs. 

At first when I saw this, my deeply rooted skepticism about the princess phenomenon kicked in.  “Here we go again,” I said to myself.  On top of that, she posted a description along with her flyer about the event as follows:

WOMEN.... do you remember the fairy tales we were told as a little girl. Disney Princesses said we are all princesses but most of us only wish it to be true now.

But who said it had to be a fairy tale?  What if it could be true that you are a PRINCESS? - one that is loved, admired, cared for and knowing.  How would life be different for you?

If you are not living in your truth and would like to know how to turn it all around., you want to be where all princess belong... the CASTLE. That's right.  We need to go to the castle to get our powers back to rule the kingdoms we were meant to serve.

The irony to this is in the short time I know Lisa, she seemed to fit under the other category of women, those whom I admire- powerful, independent and confident. She is also beautiful, well dressed and refers to her husband, Yardley, as “Handsome”.  Is it possible to be both a princess and like the women I respected?  Now I was bewildered. 

So here I was, with my deep-rooted sardonic beliefs, along with my doubting daughter and insecure mother in a room full of 100 women including my friend Jodi, whose father ironically always made her feel like a princess.  We started by dancing; as a matter of fact, we danced all throughout the day, in between exercises to uncover and release our negative patterns of behavior.  It was exhilarating and cathartic.  But most importantly, I learned more about myself in that day than I ever learned from months of therapy and self-help books.

The first thing I learned was that the beliefs we live with throughout our lives may be untrue.  Lisa wrote the word “BELIEF” on a chart and pointed out the word “LIE” within it.  “Is it possible the beliefs you’ve lived with could be lies you’ve told yourself?” she asked rhetorically.  At the beginning she had us draw a tree and write on the trunk a ‘story’ you have always told yourself- something you believed was true.  The branches were the actions you did based on what was in the trunk of your tree.  What Lisa wanted to show us was that what was in the trunk of our tree was a metaphor of how we live our life.  If we want to change, we need to cut down that tree (not so easy to do) and plant another one with a better belief of who you want to be and how you want to live your life. 

In the trunk of my tree was “I have to take care of everyone.”  Lisa asked for volunteers to come up on stage and I reluctantly raised my hand.  She was trained by Tony Robbins, someone I have followed and admire, so I trusted her implicitly.  In what felt like hours, in front of everyone else, she questioned and probed why I feel the way I do.  At one point she drew a dollar sign and a heart with an equal sign between them. I realized that this signified that I believed that money meant love and that affected the way I felt I needed to take care of everyone.  Lisa’s probing made me recognize that my father never made me feel like a princess because he never ever told me that he loved me.  The way he showed his love was to help me financially, always protect me and do as much as he could for me even when I was an adult.  I was adopting my father’s patterns of behavior on my own family and children, even my friends and colleagues.  The problem with this is that I am angry and resentful about it and becoming a martyr.  It suddenly registered that instead of being a princess with a kingdom, I became a victim with a ‘martyrdom’.

Lisa showed me that I have to let go of my anger because it is not serving me.  I need to change the trunk of my tree to a belief that will produce branches of actions to represent a more positive life.  At the end, she had me do a dance to celebrate the beginning of my positive journey. 

At the opening Lisa had told a story about her Grandma Susan (which happens to be Kimberly’s middle name).  Lisa’s epiphany came from what her Grandma Susan told her when she was at the lowest part of her life.  They were just six simple, yet profound words—“Take care of your mother’s daughter.”   This is what caused Lisa to make a change in her life and led her to help other women.  

I am no longer jaded by the princess phenomenon.  I am discovering that it’s okay to be a princess because it’s not about being rescued by a prince or being weak, it’s about feeling special and being treated that way.  So now, Lexi, I will never tell you that you should not want to be a princess or that being one will diminish the strength and power of your femininity- those were the lies in my beliefs.  Rather, I will model the words of wisdom that another grandma gave years ago….Take care of your mother’s daughter. 

And you will always be a princess just like your mom and your mom’s mom and your mom’s mom’s mom.  And your Aunt Kimberly, too.  Luckily, your daddy calls you 'princess' already.  

If you would like to read Lisa Lieberman-Wang’s book, you can find it on Amazon.  It is called Fine to Fab.   

You can also find out more about Lisa on her website: http://lisaliebermanwang.com/