Cast Member by Day, Superhero by Night

Today I was greeting upfront near all our costumes when we had a princess and her mother and grandmother come in. Grandma looks at all the costumes and asks the girl what she wants, to which the girl sadly replies, “It doesn’t matter. I can’t fit in them because I’m fat.”

I’m looking at this princess, who is probably around 8 and a totally healthy size and wondering who told this girl that she was “fat.” That’s when I decided that I was going to do my best to make some magic happen.

“Oh princess, I’m sure any of our princess dresses would fit you perfectly! You look just the perfect size for them, after all.” She looks skeptical, but I press on. “Who’s your favorite princess?”

“Belle,” she replies, slowly warming up. “I like her because she likes Beast for who he is inside.”

“Well let’s get you a Belle outfit and see how you look!”

The princess is still skeptical at this point, already telling her mother that she’ll probably need the size larger than she should wear because it won’t fit otherwise.

“I don’t know princess, I’m pretty sure you’ll fit fine in this one,” I say holding up her standard size 7/8. “Why don’t you try it on over your head and see how it looks?”

Me, along with the royal entourage, head back to where we have our mirrors behind the castle walls. Mom helps her slip it on over her head and tug it down. It’s a perfect fit with a tiny bit of room to grow even (considering it’s over her t-shirt and pants).

The princess, who was facing away from the mirror at this point, turns around and clasps a hand to her mouth.

“A perfect fit! My goodness, you’re so beautiful princess! You’ll have to watch out for Gaston though, he’ll want to sweep you off your feet since you’re such a Beauty.”

The girl gives me a wide smile and mumbles an “okay, I will” before turning to her grandmother and going “I can get this, right Grandma?”

Grandma, of course, was more than happy to get it for her along with matching shoes and a tiara. As they headed up to the registers, Mom placed a gentle hand on my shoulder and said, “Thank you so much. She really needed that.”

And all I could say (because what else can you in a situation like that?) is, “It was no problem at all!” Because it’s true. It wasn’t a problem at all and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Most of all, I hope she wows whoever knocked her confidence down in this ballgown.