I can’t be more excited for Friday. Disney’s 1989 remake of The Little Mermaid comes out this Friday, with Halle Bailey playing the curious mermaid, Ariel. Yes, she is Black.
In her debut film, Halle, known from the sister duo Chloe and Halle, will shine as the new young mermaid desperate to swim out from under the sea to find her true love, prince Eric.
When I first heard about the casting I couldn't have been happier, but outrage sparked the dark side of social media for the exact same reasons. We have a Black princess.
Surely there are worse things to be upset about.
Here’s the thing, my whole childhood revolved around Disney princesses who were white - other than Aladdin's Jasmine and Pocahontas.
I remember asking my parents to buy me a tiara the princesses always had, and getting quite frustrated when it wouldn't fit perfectly on my head.
When The Princess and the Frog first premiered in 2009 my mum took me straight to the cinemas. We even bought it on DVD.
Princess Tiana from the movie was a princess who looked like me, royalty with a darker skin complexion, and whose hair frizzed just the same the minute water touched it.
This was the one princess young, black girls had that they felt they could embody without stepping into someone else’s skin.
Now, a decade later Disney has swum back into our childhood, breaking the boundaries of what a princess should look like.
One thing Halle is also famous for are her natural locs she's been growing since she was a child. Long locs that can be styled into any style she wants.
I have locs right now, and I can admit I’m quite pleased to see a princess with the same hairstyle as mine. We're going to see her red locs flow under the sea.
But, met with mixed reviews I can't say I was shocked that people were furious they wanted their princess to stay white. They even started a hashtag #NotmyAriel to show their outrage to what they believe was a catastrophe.
It did bug me because for decades young Black girls had to imagine themselves as white princesses meeting their prince, and I never saw any outrage.
There were thousands of comments under Halle’s social media page, condemning her for the role. Some that stick with me are “now my child won’t be able to enjoy her favourite princess." Another said, “they [black people] already have princess tiana, isn’t that enough?”
Quite frankly no. One Black princess out of 12 isn’t nearly enough.
Granted, the majority of Disney princess movies were in the 20th century, where black representation only mattered when black people were viewed as mischiefs, slaves, or a main character's best friend.
They were never the main characters of happy, feel good movies, and Halle being one year older than me would’ve experienced and realised the same thing growing up.
Today, there’s a better representation in that black people can be the main characters in box office movies and reach global success.
Look at Marvel's Black Panther, one of the biggest Marvel movies to hit the screen, a movie that embodied black empowerment.
The Creed series, a spin-off to Slyvester Stallone's Rocky franchise, stars Michael B. Jordan as Adonis Creed - which grossed $200 million for its third film.
We should all be glad that Disney is trying to actively diversify the film industry and what’s shown in our screens. Aren't we tired of watching people who look like and speak like us?
But, the haters haven't rained on Halle's parade as we've seen countless videos of young girls and even boys sharing their joy and excitement with the new princess.
The movie premiere saw A listed celebrities attend with their children ready to celebrate its arrival.
Gone are the days where young girls have to watch movies without one person looking like them, a new generation of children are going to grow with one more black princess to adore and to be inspired by.
