Unveiling a Young girl’s Enchantment to Rapunzel 

Where have you heard about fairy tales before? Was it from TV, a short film, movie or a book? As a young child, I have always been drawn to fairy tales because of their mystical elements and moments that leave you thinking, “Huh how is that even realistically possible [Pause] It’s not, but it’s nice to dream.” I first heard about the Rapunzel fairy tale from the Disney adaptation Tangled and it has grown with me over the years. Why has it impacted me so much, you ask? To put it simply, the young maiden, Rapunzel has found ways to astonish me from her personality to the way she dresses. My childhood also was greatly influenced by Rapunzel’s romance tropes and became a dream for one of my future dates with my significant other.

My love for Rapunzel’s attire started as a girl impressed by 18th and 19th century fashion. I found myself admiring the patterns, fabric and the sewing of attire used by women, specifically dresses that were exhibited in American history museums. What caught my attention in the Tangled film was how women in the Kingdom of Corona and Rapunzel wore dresses with a high waist cropped bodice corset to define their bosom, puffy sleeves, and long flowing gown skirts that were ankle length. When I was older I learned that the inspiration of the gowns in the movie came from Regency-era dresses made of silk that were used in England during the 18th century. However, as a child I loved how the corset defined a woman’s silhouette, but it seemed less suffocating than the other corsets used by royalty in Eastern Europe due to the loose back feature. I also found those dresses beautiful because of the flower ornaments on the blouse of the dress, general looseness on the bottom part of the gown and the occasional lace on it. Younger me was so impressed by the dress attire and the aesthetic of the 18th century that I didn’t mind traveling back in time to experience what it was like to be a woman back then. It’s quite humorous how my younger self was so naive and was so drawn to fashion that it was the driving factor of the time period she wished to experience firsthand. I would also picture it as a way of escapism from reality because reality seemed gloomy and confusing. I wasn’t at all interested in old technology being improved or political conflict taking place in my hometown, America. After all I was only a child that loved nature, being creative and participating in afterschool activities.

Whenever anyone asks me as a child who my favorite princess was I’d shout, “Let down your hair, Rapunzel is my favorite of course!” I was captivated by how she was portrayed as a beautiful young maiden with long hair and I found myself admiring what it was like to have her blonde hair. I desired having blonde hair because I believed it would make me more attractive and unique. I felt that being a brunette was ordinary since most girls I knew that lived in Queens had the same physical features. I also had hair that resembled a coil spring but it was hard to take care of.  So, when it was brushed my hair mostly looked like a messy bush combined with waves. As you can guess, as opposed to my natural hair, I wanted to have straight hair which seemed easier to style and care for. My eyes lit up with joy when my mom bought me a long blonde braided hair extension with synthetic flowers identical to Rapunzel’s hairdo during the town’s festival.  Like the spoiled child I was, I recall begging my parents for Rapunzel merchandise and the typical dress she wore while she was locked in the castle to complete the look. During Halloween, I wore my Tangled costume and I happily twirled in my dress, feeling myself transported into Rapunzel’s world.  I also felt a stronger bond with Rapunzel whenever I dressed like her because I believed we shared similar personality traits. The traits that I identified with were Rapunzel’s kind heart, and how she was child-like due to her creative and innocent behavior. Last in order but not in importance, I gained confidence and bravery from watching the moments where she stood up for herself. 

The person I would say played the biggest role in introducing me to Rapunzel is my mother. My mother, as any responsible parent would do, would make sure that what I was watching taught good morals, was appropriate and had children as the intended audience. On this fateful day, my mother and I sat alongside one another on a red couch. The window to the left of me reflected a natural light that was so bright it was blinding me. I complained frequently up to the point where my mom had to get up to move the curtains so they covered the window completely. I heard my dad’s loud voice from afar, yell, “The popcorn is ready when you are.”My dad’s warning coming from the kitchen reminded me that my mom and I had almost forgotten the popcorn before the movie. The fresh smell of popcorn traveled from the kitchen to the living room and I rushed to help my dad carry the bowls and hot sauce. From the moment we started the movie we were immediately pulled into Rapunzel’s universe through the screen. The exciting parts however, were the parts where she came across obstacles in the forest and explored her kingdom where we got her hair braided with flowers. My mother would giggle whenever she saw me dance and toss my hair around as if I was another village girl dancing with Rapunzel whenever this scene came along. As for me I also discovered that my mom enjoyed watching Rapunzel with me because she found it endearing how much I envisioned myself being Rapunzel and it also reminded her of her younger self that had a fantasy perspective of the world. Even so, there was a moment in the movie that had the most significance on the both of us. This scene was when Rapunzel and Flynn Rider were in a boat and released a lantern into the sky at night. It became a memorable moment to us because we felt it was animated in a beautiful and appealing manner to the audience where you felt like you were present in the moment. As a result, my younger self fell in love with the idea of someday seeing the lanterns in the dark starry night or maybe even participating in the event. In spite of me being a young adult in the present, visiting a sky lanterns festival remains part of my to do list. If time permits my dream would be complete if I visited the place with someone dearest to me or my future partner.

Between you and me though, I also found the lantern scene very romantic and it was my introduction to rooting for the main love interest, Flynn Rider who at the beginning was a stranger to Rapunzel, but a well-known thief in the nearby kingdom. The character growth that Flynn Rider went through after having Rapunzel in his life, caused me to be a hopeless romantic and create expectations for my future partner. These expectations were that my future partner would love me for the real me and be my number one supporter. I knew that just like Flynn Rider my partner would have their flaws but my goal was to support them along the way and to love them unconditionally. I also wanted my partner to remember the little things that I liked and places I wanted to visit and then surprise me later with a romantic date there. As I got older however, I realized that it couldn’t be one-sided and that meant doing the same for my partner even if we shared different interests. You could say I lived in an idealistic world where my partner was so similar to me that we ended up doing and thinking the same. When reality hits though, you realize that love means finding that one thing worth fighting for in the relationship, since most of the time you won’t find someone who is just like you. Essentially, that’s the key takeaways I’ve gotten from my romantic relationships now, which I’m glad I experienced since it got me out of my delusional childhood mindset. But it’s fascinating to see how children are taught about love from a young age by being told fantasy stories where the prince is a gentleman while courting her and lives happily ever after with her. This explains how fairytales led us to search endlessly for qualities in a partner during our teen or adult years that are unrealistic and that very search could hurt us in the long run by making us feel like failures for not finding love. 

The Tangled fairytale retelling of Rapunzel is a story that I will always remember until I grow old. As a whole, Rapunzel did many things for me in the past from helping me bond with my mother to helping me embrace my innocence at the appropriate time in my life. Rapunzel’s coming of age story truly made me feel heard since I found joy in sharing personality traits with a fairytale princess that took place during my favorite century. As I previously stated, my admiration for her way of thinking about the world encouraged me to approach the outside world in an adventurous and determined way. Next time you stumble upon a familiar fairytale, consider how much significance it may have brought you when you were younger, it may surprise you, like it did with me.