Are princess games and princess culture bad for girls?

What "princess culture" means in this research

The best-known studies come from Sarah Coyne's team at Brigham Young University (BYU). In the 2016 paper, princess engagement combined three things parents reported: how often a child watched princess films and shows, how often she played with princess toys, and how strongly she identified with her favorite princess. Phone and tablet games were not part of the measure.

In both BYU samples, about 87% of the children were white, and the 2016 children came from four preschool and kindergarten sites in the US, so the results don't speak for every community. The studies are also observational: they track associations over time, which is different from proving that princesses cause anything.

What the studies found

2016: "Pretty as a Princess" (Child Development)

The study followed 198 children, average age 58 months, assessed twice about a year apart. Data came from parents, teachers and a toy-preference task. According to BYU's release, 96% of the girls and 87% of the boys had watched Disney Princess media, and more than 61% of girls played with princess toys at least once a week, compared with 4% of boys.

The main finding: children with more princess engagement showed more female gender-stereotypical behavior a year later, even after accounting for their earlier behavior. On body image, the paper found that girls with lower body esteem at the start engaged more with princesses a year later. So the link ran from body esteem to princess engagement, not the other way around.

BYU's release reported better body esteem and more helpful behavior among boys who engaged with princess media. In the paper itself, those links for boys appeared only when parents often talked with them about princess media.

One detail is easy to miss. In this sample, parental mediation, which BYU's release describes as parents discussing princess media with their children, went along with stronger links to stereotyped behavior, not weaker ones. The university took this as a sign that how parents talk about princesses matters.

2021: "Princess Power" (Child Development)

The same team followed 307 children (51% girls, average age 4.8 at the start) with questionnaires five years apart, into early adolescence. Early princess engagement was not associated with later adherence to female gender stereotypes. It was associated with higher body esteem and with lower adherence to hegemonic masculinity, which BYU described as strict adherence to gender roles that favor male dominance. Children with high early engagement were also more supportive of people feeling and showing emotion.

The authors reported small to moderate effect sizes, and socioeconomic status and the child's gender changed how strong the links were. In BYU's release, girls with high early engagement were more likely to see education, careers and relationships as equally important for women and men.

2024: the favorite princess's body size (Psychology of Popular Media)

A newer study by Jane Shawcroft, Coyne and colleagues followed 320 children from about age 3½ to 4½. Girls whose favorite princess had an average body size showed more masculine-type play a year later. The authors suggest such princesses may encourage a wider mix of play.

For children whose favorite princess had an average body size, pretend princess play went along with higher body esteem; for those whose favorite was thin, it didn't. The researchers found no body-size links for boys.

How princesses on screen have changed

Earlier content research, summarized by Benjamin Hine and colleagues in 2018, found that older Disney princesses showed mostly feminine traits, rarely rescued anyone and ended their films in romance. Hine's team then coded five films released 2009–2016: The Princess and the Frog, Tangled, Brave, Frozen and Moana. Those heroines showed an almost equal number of masculine and feminine behaviors, rescued others as often as the princes did, and were more likely to stay single.

A companion study asked 131 UK children aged 8–9 about princesses before and after watching Sleeping Beauty or Moana. The children noticed how different Aurora and Moana were, but one newer film didn't change their general picture of "a princess." Many of them didn't count Moana as a princess at all.

The studies side by side

What we take from it (our interpretation)

This section is editorial judgment, not a finding from any single paper.

The 2016 and 2021 results are less contradictory than the headlines made them sound. One looked at preschool play a year later; the other looked at attitudes and body esteem about five years later. Coyne herself summed it up in the 2021 release: a negative short-term picture that changed over time.

Neither study tested mobile games. A princess game is one more way into the same stories, and we think what a child actually does in it matters more than the crown: only choosing outfits, or also building rooms, exploring and making up a plot. The research also covers mostly white families, and the effects are modest. Your child's friends, school and everything else she does are part of the picture too.

A checklist for parents

• Ask what the princess did, not how she looked. "What was brave about Moana?" fits Coyne's 2021 advice to focus on the humanity behind each princess rather than her appearance.
• Keep princesses one interest among many. In 2016 Coyne recommended moderation, with princesses as one of many things a child enjoys. Mix in building, running games and drawing; our pretend play ideas put princesses into active roles.
• Notice what your child picks in a game. Costumes, rooms, characters, stories: her choices tell you what she enjoys about it.
• Offer princesses who do different things. Mulan, Merida, Moana and the Russian warrior princess Marya Morevna all drive their own stories.
• Listen for appearance worries. If "I'm not pretty enough" keeps coming up, talk about it calmly, and mention it to her teacher or pediatrician if it persists.
• Let boys join in. In both BYU studies, boys' princess engagement was linked with some positive outcomes; in 2016, only when parents often talked with them about princess media.
• Keep game time inside your family's limits. See what WHO and the AAP say about screen time.