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A New Kind of Princess

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Tulane chapter.

This Friday, April 29th, millions of girls’ hopes to one day become the princess of England with Prince William as their husband will be crushed. We’ve all had the fantasies of being a princess, wearing the tiara, waving in the carriage, and wearing beautiful dresses to balls dancing with our prince.

We all wanted the big, beautiful, British wedding and to have the glamorous life and fame of a princess. But modern-day princesses are different than princesses have been in the past. Kate Middleton is now accepting the challenge of being a positive role model for girls all over the world and bringing change to England. The world will be watching Kate Middleton’s every move to see what she will do with her newfound position of power. Princesses are no longer beautiful women who sit beside a prince; they are women who have the authority to change the world.
 
Princess Diana was a classic example of a modern-day princess. Not only was she a princess, but she was busy raising young children and maintaining a family.  She put in countless hours of groundbreaking charity work, most notably her work with AIDS patients and her efforts to ban landmines. Being one of the world’s first celebrities to be photographed with an AIDS patient, she helped change the world’s attitude towards people with the disease, since it was wrongly believed AIDS could be contracted from human contact. She also did the majority of raising her family and doing charity work as a single mother, and as a princess without a prince. Princess Caroline of Monaco has also done immense amounts of charity work to better her nation as well as the world. She has received the Children’s Champion Award from UNICEF on behalf of her work to protect children. In addition, she heavily supports the arts in Monaco, especially ballet and the orchestras, and works to keep the culture and arts alive.
 
Women who hold the title of “Princess” have such potential to influence the world and do something with their fame. With hundreds of millions of people looking up to the world’s princesses, they are given the opportunity to use their celebrity status and likeability to make a positive difference and give back. Nowadays, it is not only the men who are in power and can make all of the decisions, and princesses and queens can fully take advantage of that, as they should. With women in royalty holding similar status as that of men, it only makes sense that they fully use it to positively impact the world. Kate Middleton is being given a wonderful opportunity, and hopefully she can follow in the footsteps of other modern-day princesses, and positively impact England and the rest of the world.

Catherine Combs is a Tulane University Alumna, who majored in Communications and Political Science. She  has always had a soft spot for books, writing, and anything Chanel. When not searching for the final touches to her latest outfit idea, she can be found reading.