From Mia to Buttercup: 10 Great Fictional Princesses for National Princess Week

In honor of National Princess Week, we've rounded up our favorite fictional princesses and the fabulous women who played them. Get that tiara ready!

-Lucia Peters, BettyConfidential.com


Fictional Princesses
Fictional Princesses

Guess what, Bettys? It's National Princess Week! Not only that, it's the first annual National Princess Week, so break out your tiaras and get ready for a celebration!

Okay, back up: Let's deal with the cynical side of things for a moment. It's true that National Princess Week was created by Disney and Target and is therefore largely a marketing ploy to get all of us credit card-happy consumers to buy llots of princess-themed things. I also suspect that it's not an accident that National Princess Week coincides with the week leading up to William and Kate's first wedding anniversary (by the way, happy anniversary, you two! We'll have a feature for you later in the week). Weird? A little.

But all that aside-and even putting aside for a moment some of the problems we're seeing with princess culture these days-it's still kind of fun, no? After all, Julie Andrews was also part of this magical week's creation, and the way she sees it, it's "a moment in time for children to celebrate their individuality and let their inner sparkle shine." That's a nice sentiment, and it's one that we think everyone should embrace, no matter what their age or gender.

So in honor of the occasion, we've put together a list of some of our favorite fictional princesses and the phenomenal actresses who have played them. From Mia Thermopolis to Xena: Warrior Princess, there are some pretty awesome royal women out there. Ladies? We salute you!

Did we miss your favorite princess? Tell us about her (or him, I suppose!) in the comments!

1. Anne Hathaway as Mia Thermopolis, The Princess Diaries


Mia Thermopolis
Mia Thermopolis

Anne Hathaway played a lot of princesses early in her career-Ella Enchanted comes to mind-but Mia Thermopolis of The Princess Diaries is probably the most notable. Little did 15-year-old Mia know that her absentee father was actually the crown prince of the (fictional) country Genovia-and that his death would leave her next in line for the throne. And also little did she know how much she would HATE learning to be a princess. It's a good thing Julie Andrews was on hand to teach her, no?

2. Miranda Otto as Eowyn, The Lord of the Rings


Eowyn
Eowyn

Eowyn is by no means the only princess in J. R. R. Tolkien's epic, but she's by far the coolest, especially as played by Miranda Otto in Peter Jackson's films. As a shield maiden of Rohan, she got to kick way more arse than elven princess Arwen (Liv Tyler) did. Wouldn't you rather ride into battle with a sword in your hand than lie wasting away on a bed in a deserted elf haven? Yeah, me too.

3. Amy Adams as Giselle, Enchanted


Giselle
Giselle

You know, I resisted watching Enchanted for a really long time… but when I finally did, I quietly ate my words with regards to my assumptions about it. Oh, all right, I choked on them, mostly because I was laughing so hard. My personal favorite Giselle moment? When she turned Patrick Dempsey's relatively tacky curtains into a ridiculous fantasy dress. Classic!

4. Robin Wright as Princess Buttercup, The Princess Bride


Princess Buttercup
Princess Buttercup

Admittedly, Buttercup is kind of a bitch for a lot of The Princess Bride, but at least she undergoes a pretty steep learning curve, right? And hey, at least she figured out that Westley (Carey Elwes) was a significantly better dude than Prince Humperdinck (Chris Sarandon) by the end of it all. As you wish!

5. Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia Organa, Star Wars


Princess Leia
Princess Leia

Okay, yes, without Queen Padme/Amidala/whatever the heck you want to call her (aka Natalie Portman), we wouldn't have had Princess Leia, but let's face it: Leia is WAY cooler than Padme. Hoorah for the Rebels!


6. Cameron Diaz as Princess Fiona, Shrek


Princess Fiona
Princess Fiona

Do you remember the first time you saw Shrek? I sure do, and boy, was it an unexpected and hilarious surprise. Subverting the princess trope has become old hat in movies, television shows, and books at this point, but at the time Shrek came out (eleven years ago-gasp!), it wasn't quite as common. It was therefore absolutely delightful to see Fiona, voiced by Cameron Diaz, karate-chopping her way through the world-and even more delightful to find that her true form was her ogre form, and that she was TOTALLY FINE WITH IT. Go Fiona!

7. Lucy Lawless as Xena, Xena: Warrior Princess

Xena
Xena

Natch.

8. Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman


Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman

Did you know that Wonder Woman is a princess? Because she is: She's Diana, Princess of the Amazons. What's more awesome than a superhero princess? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Wonder Woman wins!

9. Mandy Moore as Rapunzel, Tangled


Rapunzel
Rapunzel

Tangled was another one of those movies that I didn't really get around to seeing until kind of after the fact; but when I finally did sit down and watch it, I was pleasantly surprised by it. Disney succeeded here where they didn't quite with The Frog Princess in that they created a modern princess who was a heroine in her own right, rather than just a pawn in someone else's game. Also, major points for the funny. Seriously. Who knew Mandy Moore could be such a comedienne?

10. Lily Collins and Kristen Stewart as Snow White, Mirror Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman


Snow White
Snow White

Bonus! Here, we've got two actresses playing very different versions of the same princess: Lily Collins and Kristen Stewart as Snow White in Mirror Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman. What do both of them have in common? Like Rapunzel, they're not just damsels in distress; in fact, they're the ones who do the rescuing. Looks like Tolkien was onto something with that whole shield maiden thing, no?

Happy National Princess Week, Bettys!




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