Lee Young love for Disney brought about the thought of having black girl Princesses.
She grew up watching Disney cartoons and movies and as she grew older, she found and joined the Disneybounding online community.
After joining the group, in 2017 she had the thought and even had someone sketch an African print mermaid skirt so she could dress the part as Ariel of “The Little Mermaid.”
“It was all black girls and @followtheyellowbrickgirl (another member) had always wanted to do the Muses from Hercules. That was when #blackgirldisneymagic began. A year later we got together again and all bounded as different versions of Tiana (since she has so many outfits).
Later that same week I came up with our next idea. Since we were out of black Disney girls I said ‘why don’t we make the Disney girls black?’ I wanted to #disneybound as Disney princesses but in African Print
Getting 14 women on african to take on the various princess from Anna to Aurora wasn’t easy.
“It was important to see this through because when I came up with the idea, it was literally because our group had run out of black women Disney characters to portray,” she explained.
Lee said she worked mostly through Instagram with the women to brainstorm and come up with ideas of how they wanted the outfits to look. The women decided that Black History Month would be the perfect time to showcase their Disney fashions with African prints and fabrics.
It would make a bigger impact and really showcase the point of the idea,” she said about debuting during Black History Month.
The group got together on Disneyland Feb. 8 and really caught people’s attention. Folks stopped, took pictures of the African print princesses. Even Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Chip and Dale stopped in their tracks to talk with the princesses, the outlet reports.
“At one point we finally had to leave Main Street because there were a lot of people staring and pointing as photos were being taken,” Young said. “All day guests were commenting on how beautiful and majestic we looked.”
The characters represented include: Aurora,Ariel, Snow White, Elsa, Anna, Rapunzel, , Merida, Vanellope, Belle, Tiana, Moana, Cinderella, Pocahontas, and Jasmine.
The attention from the social media has bee amazing.
“The response has been overwhelming. I’m still in shock that it has gotten so much praise,” she told Atlanta Black Star.
Lee intends for Black girls to be inspired by the courage of her creativity.
“For all the little girls out there who still don’t see the representation they deserve or who are still told that their black/brown skin and kinky hair are undesirable, you are beautiful princesses. The standard of beauty is YOU! You can be a mermaid, you can be a boss lady, you can be a warrior, you can be an adventurer,” Young said. “Dream big and dream bold.”
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