The Princess Diaries

these things were true. I had to be skinny or pretty or “girly” to be happy, or I’d end up like her. All these models and actors who can afford the help my mother so desperately desired, they all seem so successful and content with their lives, and we’re lead to believe this is because they “have the look”. Majority of movies or tv shows we see are based on the protagonist starting off as the “ugly duckling”, being unhappy with their jobs, significant others etc. and feeling hopeless. For example, a personal favorite movie of mine, The Princess Diaries starts off exactly like this. The main character in the beginning has big bushy hair, bad fashion sense and weird taste. All of these things deeming her “unpopular”. Then she gets a makeover, a haircut, better clothes and all of sudden, like some unknown magic, she’s wanted by everyone. All the cute boys want to date her and all the pretty girls are jealous of her. She becomes a princess. But only after she’s morphed into societal standards of beauty. Being pretty means you’re going to be successful and you’re going to get everything you ever wanted. This is pretty much the same story time and time again. You see televisions ads for something as simple as getting our taxes done, it’s some attractive person sitting across the desk from the accountant, smiling and laughing as if they had no care in the world. “Oh look, my taxes must have been done correctly and I’m getting exactly what I want because I’m pretty”. We are…

When I was 10 years old, I discovered the film The Princess Diaries 2 starring Julie Andrews as the regal, well-bred queen of a small European country and Anne Hathaway as Mia Thermopolis, her unsightly, Californian granddaughter. While trying to adjust to her new royal role, Mia falls prey to a handsome, charming suitor whose sole goal is to insinuate himself into her life in hopes of reinstating his family to the throne. In a scene that takes place shortly before he initially encounters Mia,…

China is a country with a vast cultural and historical background. It is a country with four billon people with extreme cultural diversity, which is nourished by different philosophies of its own. These philosophies are the beginning ideas of Chinese morality and spiritual belief, which were enriched by different intellectual heroes like Confucius. Confucius was born in 551 B.C at the end of the Chou dynasty as a descendent of dispossessed noble family. “His ancestors were of…

He was more infatuated with the idea of being in love with a princess than the actual princess herself. Another, was writing the book of his journey to the east, as I am doing now because of the sacredness of the league. After discussing with Leo later on our journey, only then did HH realize he was no longer in the league. This was a tragic mistake that HH had made along the way, was forgetting what he was there for in the first place. The biggest mistake of all that HH endured was the selling…

I stand in the stationary section of Walmart looking at journals. The shelves tower over me as I take in the possibilities that await for me on this quest. The journals that catch my eye are not the standard compositions, but the red ones, blue ones, and the colorful Lisa Franks. I continue to the pens; only the most colorful would do. My eyes rake across each package until I come across the one that I know is the most powerful tool the world has to offer. As I look at my full hands, I know…

(Callwood 323). Ironically, she seems to describe her own husband as perfectly imperfect, since she implies he is not perfect, but still has the characteristics of perfection that she has described. Callwood seems to emphasize multiple times the importance of selecting a partner who has the ability to compromise . This is because relationships are built on the ability to solve and learn from disagreements. Despite a heightened awareness and realization among today’s youth of the fact that…

“Eve’s Diary” and “Adams Diary” both describe the biblical narrative of the Garden of Eden and the beginning of original sin. In both stories they first two humans on Earth succumb to eating from the forbidden tree of knowledge, thus changing the world forever. However, even though basis of the narrative is the same they differ fundamentally on many levels. The main difference between the two stories is the narrator, in “Eve’s Diary” Eve describes her experience of the narrative, whereas in…

Hi! My name’s Cliff! I’m a pretty friendly person, if I do say so myself, I promise ☺. I just want to apologize in advance for anything stupid, or pathetic that I put in this diary. I don’t really think this whole diary thing is even a good idea, but my mom thought writing down my feelings would be beneficial for my transition to high school. I doubt it, but I might as well try. Hey, these types of things aren’t cheap and my parents are trying to help. I’m not going to start off with dear diary,…

The American Civil War was a conflict between Northern and Southern states of the United States between 1861 and 1865. The Valley of the Shadow archive was put together to tell the stories of the residents of Augusta County, Virginia and Franklin County, Pennsylvania during the Civil War. From 1862 to 1864 Nancy Emerson of Augusta County kept a diary detailing her life during the war. In the year 1863, Rachel Cormany kept a diary of her life in Franklin County. Life in both counties during…

An article published in The Times on September 13, 1940 entitled “City’s Cheerful Aspect” discusses how “the citizens are getting less sleep than usual … but morning finds them streaming into factory and office much as usual, and certainly still cheerful.” While this may be true from some British citizens who were impacted by the German air raids that were particularly brutal during the first stages of The Blitz, as diaries from the Mass Observation show, not all British citizens were cheerful…