By Lauren Bishop
The Cincinnati Enquirer

It started when her daughter was about 1, Mary Bailey of Anderson Township says.

Claire's playing dress-up soon evolved into playing princess, and the princess paraphernalia quickly began to accumulate.

Claire Bailey, 3, is dressed up in all of her princess attire. (Brandi Stafford photo)

An umbrella. A tea party set. Books and videos. Underwear. A pink, cone-shaped princess hat, a gift from friends who visited Disneyworld Walt Disney World. A talking pink wand with pictures of Disney's Cinderella, Snow White and Belle from Beauty and the Beast.

The allure of the sparkly, pastel princess products is hard for little girls to resist, Mary Bailey says. And it's relatively inexpensive, for how much fun she has playing with it all, she says. More often than not, she's happy to indulge her now 3-year-old daughter's desires. "It's fine with me," she says. "I had two boys."

With a slew of new princess-themed toys, books and movies, it's never been so easy for girls to live out their princess fantasies. Mattel's Princess Barbie dolls and Disney's princess-themed products are hugely popular. Disney reported sales jumped from $100 million in 2000 to $1.3 billion in 2003, after the company decided to package its most popular princesses together to sell everything from fruit snacks to bedroom sets.

Princesses can charm older girls, too. The fifth volume of Meg Cabot's The Princess Diaries series - Princess in Pink - is No. 3 on The New York Times Best-Seller List of Children's Books.

The fourth volume, Princess in Waiting, and Ella Enchanted - Gail Carson Levine's Newberry Honor-winning book that is now a movie from Disney-owned Miramax - are among the top 10 best-selling children's paperbacks.

Princesses take action

The princesses portrayed in today's movies are a far cry from the passive fairy-tale princesses of old, as Gail Carson Levine, author of six princess books, points out.

All Cinderella does is wish her troubles away, and she fails at her one task - to leave the ball before midnight, she says. Snow White pricks her finger and is out cold while all the action happens.

"There's fairy tale after fairy tale like that," Levine says. "For me, in my takes on fairy tales, I don't want the prince to fall in love with the maiden because she's pretty and compliant."

In Ella Enchanted - essentially Cinderella with a few key differences - Ella tries to rescue herself from a curse that forces her to obey every order, rather than wait around for a prince to save her. (There is a prince, but he's far from perfect.)

But Levine also says she's not writing to make a point: She's writing to tell a good story. And her stories resonate with many girls.

Katie Gephart, a 15-year-old ninth-grader at Seven Hills High School, says she loved the new Julia Stiles movie The Prince & Me, plans to see Ella Enchanted and never misses a Princess Diaries book.

"I think this Cinderella aspect of current books and movies is appealing, because what girl wouldn't want to meet the guy of her dreams and fall in love and live happily ever after?" she says.

Even with their newfound independence, though, princesses in most modern-day tales still end up living happily ever after. Hannah Koresky, a 17-year-old 11th-grader at Anderson High School, agrees the movies show what every girl wants - though she says she doesn't usually go to see them because their fairy-tale endings are unrealistic.

"The movies just end up depressing me and making me look for that Prince Charming," she says.

Such portrayals of princesses give pause to some. Yasue Kuwahara, a professor of communications and the director of popular culture studies at Northern Kentucky University, says the image of the pretty princess is over-emphasized in the Disney movies and the Princess Barbie dolls.

"In that sense, I think it's problematic," she says. "The focus is on the looks."

Looks are a big part of why princesses are attractive to little girls. Asked why she wants to be one, 7-year-old Kelsi Garibay of Colerain Township says: "Because they're pretty. And because I like the fact that I want to turn into one someday."

Her mother, Jennifer Garibay, says she thinks the fascination with princesses is good for girls' self-esteem.

"They idolize them and think they're so pretty," she says. "It makes them feel like they are, too."

Kelsi's penchant for princesses started at age 3 or 4, her mother says. Today, her small bedroom is adorned with porcelain princess dolls, Disney princess banks, stamp pads, play sets, a radio and an alarm clock. Opening the door to Kelsi's closet, Garibay reveals her daughter's princess pajamas, a towel, flip-flops and sandals.

One serious princess

For the last couple of months, Caroline and John DiMauro's 2-year-old daughter, Isabella, has been wearing a princess costume almost daily - to the park, to the store, to music class.

"We knew it was bad when she refused to respond to Isabella," Caroline, of Mariemont, says of her daughter. "She would only respond to Princess Aurora."

(That's Sleeping Beauty, for those of you who aren't little girls.)

DiMauro says she was surprised the marketing of princesses reached her daughter at such an early age. Isabella recently went crazy when she spotted princess-patterned paper cups in the party goods aisle at Kroger, she says.

"Instead of having her have a meltdown, I basically threw them in the cart and kept walking," she says.

DiMauro says she tries not to take her daughter's obsession too seriously.

"She's 2," she says. "It's, hopefully, a stage she's going to go through."

Dr. Kathy Burklow, a clinical child psychologist at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, says it's typical for girls to try out different roles - princesses, brides, housewives - that are consistent with their gender.

That kind of play can provide parents an opportunity to teach their daughters that they're capable of doing anything they want and don't need to be rescued, Burklow says.

"You can be on the softball team and still wear a crown," she says.

It's clear girls aren't limiting themselves to being just princesses. Kelsi Garibay's room also includes softball and soccer trophies. And the sparkly silver saying on one of her T-shirts is even more telling.

"Forget princess," it says. "I want to be queen!"

Follow the phenomenon

Can't get enough of the princess phenomenon? Look no further:

New store: A Club Libby Lu kiosk is scheduled to open at the Parisian store at Kenwood Towne Centre in June, says Parisian store manager Dave Brewer.

The kiosk will sell some of the fit-for-a-princess cosmetics, jewelry and accessories sold at Saks-owned Club Libby Lu stores, including one at the Easton Town Center in Columbus, Brewer says. The stores specialize in giving fantasy makeovers to pre-teen girls, turning them into princesses or rock stars for a day.

A larger-scale Club Libby Lu store is slated to open within Parisian after a complete renovation of the department store that's on track to begin this year, Brewer says.

New books: There are enough to fill a kingdom, but here are some of the newest: The Two Princesses of Bamarre by Gail Carson Levine (HarperCollins; $6.99); Princess in Pink: The Princess Diaries, Volume V by Meg Cabot (HarperCollins; $15.99); and Cabot's Perfect Princess: A Princess Diaries Book (HarperCollins; $12.99). New picture books for younger readers include The Princess Knight by Cornelia Funke (Scholastic; $15.95) and The Princess's Secret Letters by Hilary Robinson (Red Wagon Books; $12.95)

New movies: Out now are The Prince & Me and Ella Enchanted. Later this year, look for A Cinderella Story, starring Hilary Duff (July), and The Princess Diaries 2: The Royal Engagement, starring Anne Hathaway (August).

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E-mail lbishop@enquirer.com