“The Future…Is In The Hands Of My Fifteen-Year-Old?” The movie The princess diaries follows Mia Thermopolis, a nerdy and unpopular high school girl, whose plan is to be invisible. Then out of nowhere, her European grandmother comes to town and tells her she is the princess of Genovia, a tiny country she’s never even heard of before. Mia is less than thrilled to learn that she is now the center of attention for the whole world. Mia has to learn how to walk, dress, and speak like a princess all while grappling with the decision of whether to accept the throne or not. In classic coming-of-age movie fashion, Mia learns life lessons about loyalty, friendship and being true to herself. 

Mia is portrayed as quirky and relatable to young girls because she is clumsy, and she isn’t conventionally beautiful. In the beginning of the movie, Mia has thick frizzy hair, glasses, and “bushman eyebrows,” and while she had already begun learning how to act like a princess, her grandmother doesn’t see her as a princess until she finds a flat iron, some tweezers and contact lenses. After the transformation, Mia is seen as worthy of being a princess by her grandmother, and she quickly gains popularity at school. In contrast, Lily Moscovitz, Mia’s equally unpopular and stereotypically unattractive best friend, is treated like garbage by most of her peers the entire movie. This reinforces the idea that girls have to be “pretty” to be a princess or even successful.

From the beginning of the movie, Mia has a crush on the most popular boy in school: Josh Bryant, a boy who completely ignores Mia’s existence until she is revealed to be a princess. When he finally acknowledges Mia, he takes advantage of her obsession with him to exploit her to the press and get his 15 minutes of fame. This whole time, Mia’s friend Michael, who is clearly attracted to her, is kind to Mia doing favors for her and treating her like an actual person. When Michael finally takes his shot and asks Mia out, she accepts only to cancel on him because Josh asked her out also.

Throughout everything Mia must decide whether she wants to accept the throne and become the next ruler of Genovia, or reject the throne and leave Genovia to be ruled by the power-hungry Baron and Baroness who are next in line for the throne should she refuse it. So Mia, a 15 year old girl must make the impossible decisions of who will rule a European country, whether or not she will ditch her best friend for popularity and which boy she should date: the popular, pretty one who has always treated her like dirt, or the nice, not-so-popular one who has always been kind to her even before she was a princess. Mia is understandably overwhelmed, but ultimately, she makes what she believes to be the best possible decisions all while learning to be true to herself.