Princesses are a funny species. They’ve always been fantastically popular in the imagination of the masses — all long, pretty hair and gauzy dresses, their hopeful beauty radiating as soft and warm as a calm summer’s day. Young children, for example, love princesses for their sweet and gentle nature; we love them all the more when some menacing villain tries to steal their innocence or lock them away in some remote tower of captivity. In other words, it’s easy to root for a princess. What is much harder, and infinitely more complicated, is to actually be a princess. The satisfaction of being both coddled and admired is a thin source of warmth, indeed, because it depends so conditionally on the princess not just holding her admirers’ attention, but also, upon fulfilling the two-dimensional fantasies that their admirers have projected onto them. But the truth is, princesses are eminently human, and totally three-dimensional! They get crabby, they grow resentful, they suffer from jealousy and ill-temper, and some are inflamed with a rebellious spirit, caused in no small part by the suffocating expectations of their fawning admirers. Let a princess be a human! is what so many princesses long to cry out, as they tear at those itchy, gauzy dresses in favor of diving into some seriously comfortable sweatpants. I like to think that this princess (played by the gorgeous Renee Simonsen on our card, here) has already done the hard work of shedding her fantasy good-girl image. All that remains of her fairy-tale life, in fact, is an audacious sense of confidence that she can take the wheel, now, and steer her ship into exactly the kinds of waters she chooses. ❤️‍🔥—Y.B.D.