The Princess Problem: Guiding Our Girls through the Princess-Obsessed Years

by Rebecca Hains

Overview

How to Raise Empowered Girls in a Princess World!

It's no secret that little girls love princesses, but behind the twirly dresses and glittery crowns sits a powerful marketing machine, delivering negative stereotypes about gender, race, and beauty to young girls. So how can you protect your daughter, fight back, and offer new, less harmful options for their princess obsession?

The Princess Problem features real advice and stories from parents, educators, psychologists, children's industry insiders that will help equip our daughters to navigate the princess-saturated media landscape. With excellent research and tips to guide parents through honest conversations with their kids, The Princess Problem is the parenting resource to raising thoughful, open-minded children.

"a very insightful look at our princess culture...Parents — this is a must read!" — Brenda Chapman, Writer/Director, Disney/Pixar's BRAVE

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781402294037
Publisher:	Sourcebooks
Publication date:	09/02/2014
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Rebecca Hains, Ph.D., is a professor of media studies at Salem State University. She researches girls' media culture, and over the years, she has heard from countless parents about their princess-related parenting struggles. She has been published or quoted in a range of media, including the Huffington Post, the Boston Globe, Today's Parent, The Christian Science Monitor, and NPR. She blogs at rebeccahains.wordpress.com and lives north of Boston with her husband and two children.

Editorial Reviews

09/01/2014
Children’s media expert Hains (Growing Up with Girl Power) investigated a dominant cultural force in little girls’ lives through an unusual method: moonlighting as a costumed birthday party princess. She learned that parents are aware of the potential problems, like unrealistic body image and lowered self-esteem, associated with the princess obsession; they just don’t know what to do about it. “Princess culture” is more than a phase when girls aged 2–10 enjoy pretty pink tutus, movies, and toys—it is an unavoidable, gender-segregated media and marketing phenomenon fueled primarily by Disney’s Princess Collection line of branded items, which has thus far generated $4 billion in sales. Hains’s dissection of princess marketing reveals inherent gender stereotypes, centered on romance, beauty, passivity (at least until Frozen), and ethnic homogeneity, with non-Caucasians accorded only token representation. To beat the “Pretty Princess Mandate,” Hains prescribes “Pop Culture Coaching.” In four step-by-step chapters, she offers parents advice on how to decide which values are important to them, talk to their kids about the media, and set a “healthy media diet.” The princess culture issue was previously addressed in 2011 in Peggy Orenstein’s Cinderella Ate My Daughter, but Hains adds to the discussion with these practical parenting tips. Agent: Jill Marsal, Marsal Lyon Literary Agency. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"Media and marketers bombard girls at ever-younger ages with "fun" products that promote pernicious stereotypes. So what's a parent to do? Enter Rebecca Hains, a wise, optimistic guide through the princess industrial complex. The Princess Problem is an indispensable tool kit, full of concrete, practical advice. I only wish it had been around when my daughter was in preschool!" - Peggy Orenstein, author of Cinderella Ate My Daughter

"The Princess Problem" is such a beacon of light for parents trying to navigate through the fog of their daughter's princess obsessions...Hains' book offers concrete tips, from introducing a variety of toys beyond the princess centric to working with your child on creating a healthy media diet." - Los Angeles Times

"The Princess Problem was an informative and engaging read. The tone throughout was friendly. I felt like the author completely understood where I was coming from, and the ideas suggested were appropriate and not at all overwhelming. I really enjoyed reading this book!" - Rebecca Reads

"The Princess Problem offers sound, sensible and parent-tested advice for helping children thrive in today's consumer culture. Hains... lays out a family-centered strategy for raising media-smart kids." - Jo B. Paoletti, author of Pink and Blue: Telling the Boys from the Girls in America

"Blending fact, analysis, and compelling research with expert interviews and eye-opening narratives from actual moms, Rebecca Hains paints a troubling picture of princess culture and media messaging. But like a true fairy godmother, she swoops in to mentor parents on how to rescue girls from the diabolical clutches of the self-serving marketing machine by offering real-world solutions and teachable techniques to counter its effects." - Jen Jones, Co-Founder & Managing Editor, WomenYouShouldKnow.net

"Hains's dissection of princess marketing reveals inherent gender stereotypes, centered on romance, beauty, passivity (at least until Frozen), and ethnic homogeneity...Hains adds to the discussion with these practical parenting tips" - Publishers Weekly

"Ms.Hains has given us a very insightful look at our princess culture. And she doesn't stop there. Her ideas and suggestions on how parents can help their children navigate the overwhelming princess marketing, media and negative stereotypes are refreshingly perceptive. She points out the problem and offers realistic solutions. Parents – this is a must read!" - Brenda Chapman, Writer/Director, Disney/Pixar's BRAVE

"With warmth, humor, and in-depth research, The Princess Problem thoughtfully explores the production of princess culture, its impact on children, and why we should all care about it. As an expert in media literacy for children, Hains provides concrete and effective (and often fun) strategies and activities to help parents raise girls and boys who are confident, critical, and compassionate." - Chyng Sun, Ph.D., Clinical Professor of Media Studies, McGhee Division, School of Continuing and Professional Studies, New York University, and the producer of documentary film Mickey Mouse Monopoly: Disney, Childhood, and Corporate Power

From the Publisher