The Princess Diaries
All things will come with a little time when you believe
Welcome to my first-ever newsletter! I thought this concept up in the fall of 2022 when I was thinking of more ways to write about the things that inspire me and have them read by people who resonate with them. Since it's a new year, launching my newsletter felt like the perfect way to kick off 2023.
As always, after the holidays, I was feeling drained and uninspired. January is typically a difficult month for me because after three months of nonstop seasonal excitement, from pumpkin picking to putting up the Christmas Tree, I now have to wait another year to experience it again. During times like these, I watch a lot of movies. Particularly ones I would categorize as "comfort movies."
I decided to revisit one of my favorites, The Princess Diaries. The Garry Marshall film launched Anne Hathaway into the spotlight, united her with Julie Andrews, and delivered arguably the best ending song of any Disney film. In the 2020 lockdown, I rewatched The Princess Diaries while writing for a website called The Daily Fandom. At the time, I was emerging on my spiritual journey and was fascinated by Mia Thermopolis' transformation throughout the movie. I decided to write my first article about Mia's evolution from start to finish.
We meet Mia as an immature and insecure high school sophomore who feels unseen by everyone except her best friend, Lilly Moscovitz. She can't stomach public speaking and is hopelessly in love with Josh Bryant because he has nice hair (though not much else to offer.) By the end of the film, she's a woman capable of running a country, even if she arrives to accept her position as Princess of Genovia while wringing rainwater out of her hair.
To paraphrase something James Cameron said in his MasterClass, we like a dismissible character–because that's how the average person feels–who is then plucked from mediocrity and thrown into a circumstance that helps them realize their life has great meaning. Typically, the average person who feels dismissible yearns for something extraordinary to happen to them, and I believe that's why The Princess Diaries fans love Mia so much. She embodies James' theory.
Mia's evolution begins when she agrees to do princess training with her grandmother Clarise Renaldi, but along the way, she learns responsibility and creates a bond so strong with Clarise that she cares more about making her grandmother proud and living up to the potential she sees in her than she does about all the reasons she's afraid to take on the leadership role.
A pivotal moment comes toward the end of the film when Mia finds a letter her father wrote her before his death. "Amelia, courage is not the absence of fear but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear," her father wrote. "The brave may not live forever, but the cautious do not live at all. From now on, you'll be traveling the road between who you think you are and who you can be. The Key is to allow yourself to make the journey."
Mia's life began when she stopped believing in her limitations, insecurities, and fears and refocused her attention on all her capabilities. Mia, at the start of the film, is someone most young girls have resonated with at some point in their life, but Mia, at the end of the film, is someone who girls can strive to be like. She is someone who leads with love and confidence, who fearlessly tackles the things that once scared her to death, and who, even in squeaky doc martens and dripping wet hair, could stand up in front of a crowd and accept her position as Amelia Mignonette Thermopolis Renaldi, Princess of Genovia, and know that she deserves the title.
Hidden within these crucial messages is a sweet love story that is more satisfying than if Mia ended up with Josh. When Mia meets Lilly's brother Michael Moscovitz in the garden after accepting her position as Princess of Genovia, he asks her why she chose him, and she confesses, "because you saw me when I was invisible." Here we're sent an essential message about relationships, even platonic ones; choose people who choose you, and don't pine after people like Josh, who don't see your worth or accept you for who you are. In a world where people often put the ones they're attracted to on pedestals and work to prove their worth to them, this was a compelling message to present at the end of the film.
However, before the movie officially comes to a close, Mia and Michael rejoin their friends and Genovian citizens in the ballroom, where Myra's "Miracles Happen" plays over a dance sequence, and later, while Mia arrives in Genovia by private jet. I made it my goal for 2023 to listen to "Miracles Happen" every morning, and if it lands at the top of my 2023 Spotify Wrapped list, then I'll know I achieved that goal. For dreamers, The Princess Diaries is a crucial reminder that all things are possible. Mia's transformation doesn't happen overnight, she encounters many roadblocks, experiences several mishaps, and nearly gives up at the end, but she doesn't. Mia chooses to believe in herself and keeps going because, as Myra sings in the film's closing song, "all things will come with a little time when you believe."
love this movie and really enjoy your post💓
feel like re-watch it 😍 ^^