At the intersection of media, internet culture and gender roles is a heartbreaking exploration of of one human experience: a teenage girl who is obsessed with the Disney Princess archetype and using it as a means for participating in self-mutilating and harmful behavior. Using Twitter as the primary site for collecting data, this paper reads more like a young adult novel than a piece of academic research. And just like any successful narrative, the author weaves together the identity of its main character, Twitter user @BunnieJuice, in a larger social context. As the extensive literature review points out, the Disney Princess franchise has been a cornerstone of girl culture since the dawn of pop media, and the imprint on the psyches of young girls has been well documented as research fields expand to specifically include the female adolescent experience.
2014 boasted modern Disney’s most lucrative princess driven films, Frozen, in which the main character, Princess Elsa, lives a personal mantra to “conceal don’t feel.” In an era where even toddlers have screens at their fingertips, there is an ever-present need to pay attention to how the princess ideology creates a dangerous model for young women to aspire to. Though, as Dr. Ryan points out, “[P]erhaps the most disturbing element in this analysis is the connection between eating disorders and self-harming behavior.”