I love Disney, and for the longest time I have been waiting for the moment that Disney finally makes a Latina princess. Elena of Avalor is not the princess I have eagerly been waiting for. Don’t get me wrong, I am excited about her arrival; I am happy for what Elena will mean to many young Latinx children. However, I am sad that Disney thinks Elena is enough to keep us satisfied. Elena of Avalor is a good start, but she is not enough.

Elena will be the main character of a Disney Junior spin-off series, meant for toddlers. When I said I wanted a Latina princess from Disney I expected more, and when Disney said that they finally had a Latina princes,s I expected more. I don’t understand why Disney would decide to undermine itself like this. A company that is known for creating amazing animated films that literally take over the world (e.g., "Frozen") is only giving the Latinx community a Disney Junior spin-off series? That doesn’t seem fair. Somehow, I feel like Elena was only made as a way to placate the wants of the Latinx community. We wanted a Latina princess, and Disney gave us just that, but they didn’t commit. They took the easy way out. They gave us Elena and now we should be happy because at least we have some form of representation. Our stories, our culture, our people, are worthy of being a princess and they are worthy of at least a film.

Elena will not be considered an official Disney princess. She will never stand next to Cinderella or Belle. Elena will never be considered equal to any of the official Disney princess and never held to the same level of admiration as them. This may be representation, but it is not equal. “First Latina Disney Princess,” is the headline you will read, and you will think that finally, Disney is coming up with a Latina princess who will star in her own Disney animated film with an awesome soundtrack. No, instead it's about a Disney Junior show that will not live on after it is canceled. Like many other Disney Junior shows it will not stand the test of time, but you know what would stand the test of time? A Disney animated film like "Cinderella," "The Little Mermaid" and "Aladdin." However, we don’t get that.

Imagine for a minute that Disney advertised Tiana as the first African-American princess. You read an article titled “Disney’s first African-American Princess” and you thought, finally. You would get to the end of the article only to find out that Tiana was only going to get a Disney Junior show. Tiana isn’t really going to be a princess, but Disney is going to market her as the first African-American princess anyways. Disney will keep telling you she is a princess in hopes that you’ll forget that you were cheated out of actually getting a princess. That wouldn’t make you happy.

We all know what a Disney Princess is, and we know what comes with being a Disney princess. Cinderella, Ariel, Tiana, Jasmine, Merida, Rapunzel, Anna, Aurora, Snow White and Belle all have animated feature films. Pocahontas and Mulan are technically not even princesses (they don’t marry a prince, and they aren’t born princesses) yet they are marketed and sold as part of the Disney princess franchise because they had an animated feature film that was successful and their films were shown in movie theaters. These princesses didn’t start off on some Disney Junior show.

Elena is not a Disney princess. You can’t give us Elena and expect us to call it a success we have seen what the other Princess get, and we want that for our princess. If you are going to market her as a princess make her an official Disney princess. Don’t use Elena as a cop-out to get out of making an official Disney Latina princess. We have waited for our princess, Disney. We know you can give us better, and we deserve better.