She has huge eyes, a tiny waist, high cheekbones and fancy dresses. She’s everywhere. And she could influence the way your child grows up.
She is, of course, the Disney princess.
Anyone who has heard a toddler screaming “Let It Go” knows the power of America’s favorite heroines. Analysts estimate Hasbro’s princess-doll empire is worth roughly $500 million. “Frozen” remains the highest grossing animated film of all time.
A new study sought to understand how this sparkly ubiquity shapes preschoolers’ attitudes about gender roles and body image. Researchers discovered that it has strong effects not only on girls but also boys. Heavy exposure to Disney princess culture correlated with more female-stereotypical behavior in both sexes a year later. Although that created potentially problematic behavior in girls — relegating them to playing with toys in the “girl aisle” — it had a moderating effect on boys, such as making them more helpful with classmates.
The study of nearly 200 kids found nearly all of them knew about Disney princesses: 96 percent of girls and 87 percent of boys had consumed some form of princess-centric media. Gender differences opened wide, though, when it came to who actually played with the toys. Sixty-one percent of the girls interacted with the merchandise once per week, compared with 4 percent of the boys.