Question: Did you ever think you’d be 41 years old and wearing princess bandaids?

Because that’s where I am right now.

We’re heavily into princesses in my house. This in spite of the fact that the only Disney movies my daughter has seen are Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and Cinderellla.

That means we haven’t even touched Ariel, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Pocohontos or Mulan. Oy.

My mother in law, on a recent visit, expressed concern about my daughter’s obsession with princesses. The most upsetting part to her (and to me) is swallowing the part about a princess absolutely needing to marry or be saved by a prince. I fully agree with her. I didn’t realize it was all seeping into my daughter’s growing brain, but it is. Already.

Yes, she is already playing “princess wedding” at preschool. I’m not saying this is cause for major alarm, but an awareness that she doesn’t have to marry the prince to make her dreams come true is pretty important. And it’s important pretty soon, since she has already obviously internalized it.

The whole princess culture meets the celebrity-obsessed skinny model/actress world a little too neatly. Only there, it isn’t so much the handsome prince saving her, as the major TV or film studio. What follows for princesses or celebrities is an adoring public and stellar expectations that can never be achieved. (see Britney Spears)

Since the US bases its entire identity on not having a monarchy, it’s pretty ironic that we’ve created our own. Celebrities are the new princesses.

And before long my daughter is going to be not just all over the princesses that Disney has confected for us, but Hannah Montana and Barbie and all those skinny High School Musical starlets. I’m anxious about how to help her navigate her way through all of this with even a shred of self-esteem intact.

If my life is any indication, insecurity starts early and never really goes away completely. We all want to feel like princesses but we often don’t.

But as grown women, we (hopefully) know we don’t have to get married or hook up or get signed to a major label/studio to be considered fabulous and beautiful. We as girls and women need to stand on our own two feet, whether we wear Birkenstocks or Doc Martens, Manolo Blahniks or Chucks.

Fight Princess Culture! Teach your daughter not to place her dreams in someone else’s (male) hands. Teach her she can achieve her dreams, whatever they are. And don’t forget to teach your sons that, too. How they see women affects how your daughters will be treated.

We have a lot of work to do.

Where shall we begin?