Wednesday, August 3, 2016 marked 15 years since the feel-good teenage comedy "The Princess Diaries" first aired. This has been one of my go-to "I need a laugh" movie for years. My sisters and I quoted this movie backwards and forward during family road trips; it was quoting this movie was always the only context in which we were allowed to say "shut up" in front of our mother. In fact, before I even knew it was the anniversary of its debut, I knew I had to watch this movie sometime soon. The more I thought about it, the more I came to understand why I, my sisters and so many others love this movie: Anne Hathaway's character, Mia Thermopolis, may be one of the most realistic characters in the history of films geared at teenagers.
So maybe not every teenage girl is secretly a princess. Maybe not everyone has a grandmother who rules a small country in Europe. But Mia is still a very real character. In the beginning, she's shy, awkward and doesn't think she's particularly attractive. She doesn't have many friends, just Lilly, and her biggest wish is to remain invisible, but who hasn't thought any of these things?
Even when she gets her makeover, she doesn't let it go to her head. She keeps her wits about her and keeps trying to maintain her goal of being invisible. She wears a hat the next day. She keeps her head down. She keeps it a secret that she's a princess.
But then she has her cover blown out of the water by her hairdresser. Because of his acts, the "mean girls" at Mia's school suddenly pretend that they've always been BFFs with her, even though they haven't even been anything but rude to her.
She has a crush on the boyfriend of one of those mean girls and is over the moon when he finally asks her out. I don't know any girl who hasn't had a crush on the perfectly unattainable boy, which seems to be my favorite, and I don't know any girl who wouldn't say yes if said boy asked her out. While Josh, in typical wrong guy for you fashion, only uses Mia's standing to make himself appear in the news. The pain Mia feels in this is nearly palpable. The way she leans on her mother and grandmother and makes a life changing decision because of Josh's actions is amazing.
Behind the scenes is the brother of Lilly, Michael, also an incredibly understandable character. The entire movie, viewers watch as Michael obviously pines for Mia, even before her makeover and fame. He is literally taken aback after her looks change, but it's obvious that he cared about her before that time. We've all been that person, and chances are good that we've all been someone's Mia. It may not have been for the Josh in our life, and we may not have known it was happening, but odds are high that it's happened before.
"The Princess Diaries" will most likely always be on my list of go-to movies for when I need a little cheering up. Now I understand why. The late Gary Marshall created characters that all have little pieces of everyone to form some of the most solid and relatable characters. Critics claim it was just a makeover movie geared towards teenage girls, but it's so much more, and I'm not embarrassed in the slightest to say this is one of my favorite movies of all time.
