There are dreamsโฆ and then there are moments that feel as though they were written in the stars long before you ever arrived. โจ๐๐ฉต๐ฉต
To become a @disney Disney Princess was already beyond anything my younger self could have imagined. But to now stand among the beautiful legacy of Disney Princesses, to know that I am forever a part of this magical family, is something I will never take for granted.
And there is an even deeper meaning for me.
To have been the first Black Cinderella, and to know that the door we walked through helped make the kingdom wider for the beautiful Black princesses who would come after me, is one of the greatest honors of my life.
What Whitney Houston @whitneyhouston and Rodgers & Hammersteinโs Cinderella gave us was bigger than a movie. We showed a generation of little Black girls that the glass slipper could fit them, too. That they could be soft and powerful. Regal and magical. Seen, celebrated, chosen, and centered in the fairytale.
And then came more history. @anikaaroundtheworld Anika Noni Rose gave us the beautiful Princess Tiana. Halle Bailey @hallebailey brought a new generation under the sea as Ariel.
And today, I get to look around at this ever-expanding kingdom and feel the magnitude of what representation can become when one door opensโฆ and we keep holding it open for one another. ๐๐ฉต๐ฉต๐ฉต
From Cinderella at 18 to Queen Cinderella today, this journey continues to feel like divine poetry.
I once stepped into a glass slipper.
I could never have imagined the footprints it would leave behind.
Thank you, Disney, for allowing me to live inside the magic, and for letting that magic keep growing. โจ๐ฐ๐๐ฉต๐ฉต๐ฉต
Forever grateful. Forever Cinderella. ๐ฉต๐ฉต๐ฉต