Introduction

To truly understand my princess passion, you need to hear the story of my 16th birthday party.

The day of my Sweet 16, I wore a carefully planned outfit - purple shirt, plastic purple costume jewelry, and a ridiculously sparkly crown with glitter that gently fluttered in my hair and on my shoulders every time I moved. I found the crown at Claire's for $4.95 + tax. It was not my first (or last) crown, by any means.

At my party, a beautiful bouquet of Disney Princess balloons adorned the dining room table. My mom gave in to all of my begging, and she bought me a Disney Princess ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. It even came with figurines of Belle, Cinderella, Snow White, and Ariel.

Present-wise, my parents showered me with everything Disney, hoping, I'm sure, to cure my obsession. They gave me two big gift bags (with pictures from Beauty and the Beast on them, of course) full of presents - Disney Princess markers, crayons, toys, coloring books - basically anything you could think of. Oh, and over 2,000 Disney Princess stickers. My closest friends gave me Disney Princess birthday caards, the best ones being the "singing" cards that serenaded me with choruses of "Someday My Prince Will Come" and "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes." My best guy friend gave me a magic wand that conveniently matched my crown. It even lit up.

I added all of my gifts to my previous collection of Disney Princess merchandise, and that night, I fell asleep listening to my Disney Princess CD, wrapped up in my Disney Princess blanket, head resting on my giant Disney Princess pillow shaped like a crown.

I was one happy 16 year old.

Looking back, I can understand why more than a few people thought I was a little crazy. It's kind of an out-there obsession for a normal teenage girl to have. The reason for my princess obsession started to sink in about a year after the party. I discovered one very important thing about myself.

I wanted to be a princess!

Obviously, I'm sure you're thinking. But I can honestly say that I hadn't known that about myself until after I really started examining my obsession.

I wanted someone, preferably a handsome prince, to come and sweep me off my feet. I wanted him to look deep inside me and ignore all of my bad parts, instead focusing on every last princess-like quality I had buried inside myself. I wanted someone to think I was worth a happy ending. I wanted my once upon a time and my happily ever after. I wanted to be worthy of a crown.

And then one night, I found two verses in my Bible that changed absolutely everything.

One was Psalm 103:2-5. The other was Isaiah 61:1-3. You should go look them up. Right now.

Trust me, it's worth it.

Well, what do you think?

Don't they make you feel beautiful? Don't they make you realize that someone has written you a once upon a time at last? Don't they make you look forward to your own happily ever after? Don't they make you want to be different?

That's how they made me feel. They made me more than just Kelsey. They crowned me as Princess Kelsey. And immediately, I wanted to live up to that title.

But what exactly is a princess? How do we know what qualities to build in ourselves in make us worthy of being a princess? How do we know what's truly beautiful?

This is where my Disney Princess obsession comes in.

It seems crazy, mixing Disney and the Bible. But the more I thought abou it and the more I researched, the more I discovered that there are endless connections between my Bible and the princesses in my favorite fairy tales.

Let's just think of it this way. The Bible is our how-to manual on becoming a princess, and the Disney Princesses are our tour gujides.

Are you ready to get started?

Once upon a time...