Every girl fell in love with Mia Thermopolis from The Princess Diaries. She was our fairytale hero made real. I personally had a deep connection with Mia and The Princess Diaries as a growing girl, and these are a few lessons I learned from this fantastic story!

You are not born invisible

No one, no one, is meant to be invisible. You are not born with a gift of invisibility. You are not destined to hide away. No one is. Growing up, I was a lot like Mia and found myself finding peace in the invisibility. It was so easy and so nice to just hide away from the world. There I was never looked down on. If people passed me by, they didn’t look long enough to question or insult me. I thought, just like Mia did, that I had some sort of gift of invisibility. I thought that my ability to sit in a group of people and not speak, be spoken to, or looked at was some horrible genetic trait. It’s not. Sure, you can be like that majority of your life, but it is not something you’re stuck in. You have the power to change that.

You have a voice that needs to be heard

Lately I’ve found that the only voices ever heard are the ones that are always vocal. The same people, the same ideas, are always heard. The different voices, with different ideas, are never heard. They’re shut out, and that isn’t how it’s supposed to be. Lilly, Mia’s best friend, tells Mia how amazing the princess opportunity is. She says, “Wow is having the power to affect change...make people listen. How many teenagers have that power?” Mia had a hard time speaking in public, but she spoke anyway. She knew the opportunity, power and responsibility she had. She knew how many people went through the world unheard, and she decided not to be one of them.

You are beautiful

I don’t know about you, but seeing Paulo’s transformation makeover on Mia made me day dream about that happening to me. I thought about how I could completely transform and look beautiful like Mia did. I didn’t realize until I got older the best part of that scene: she was always that beautiful. Sure, it took some work from Paulo for her to find it, but she always looked like that. She always had that beauty in her, and I think that symbolizes something amazing, that every girl is beautiful, just like Mia.

You don’t need a man

Sure, it’s a romance movie, but if you remember the second film, she stands up in the middle of her wedding saying how she doesn’t need a man. She says that she can rule without one. She gives her grandma as an example saying how she has led Genovia for years without a man and has done a fantastic job with it. Mia was told dozens of times throughout that movie that she couldn’t possible rule the country without a man, that a man was needed for the diplomacy and responsibility of royalty. No matter what they said or the law demanded, by the end, she knew that she could lead without a man and that she was not about to do what everyone else was forcing her to do. She said no to parliament and shook the country and our hearts back home.

It’s okay to be awkward and a bit of a mess

Let’s get something straight, Mia is not the typical graceful princess. She is clumsy, awkward and a bit silly, but she’s still a princess. She’s still honorable and respected. She still fulfills her responsibilities and understand the behavior needed to be a princess, but she isn’t perfect. That’s a wonderful thing. Mia isn’t perfect, but she is a princess. She’s not arrogant or entitled because of her position. She’s herself aka not perfect. I think in the pressures of all we have to be, we forget that we can be amazing and successful and imperfect. Mia reminds us of that.

You are precious just the way you are

Like I said, Mia isn’t perfect. She’s a bit of a mess sometimes, but she’s wonderful too. She’s imperfectly precious. She’s honored, respected and valuable through all she goes through in the movies. She keeps her chin up through all the pressure and even though she falters and doesn’t always meet expectations, she’s still a gem to Genovia that the country is blessed to have ruling over them.

There is more to a person than you think

Throughout high school, Mia was completely invisible to all of her peers. If they noticed her, they insulted and mocked her. They shot her down. They underestimated her. They thought she couldn’t do anything and that she was only a weird, quiet girl. Little did they know that she was a princess. She had royal blood in her veins. She was much more than any of them ever dreamt of, and I think that’s the best part of The Princess Diaries. In both movies, people underestimate her and get a slap in the face when they see the power and goodness of this one girl. WE all have that power and value. We are all more than first impressions.

Never let anyone put you down

Throughout the movies, there was always someone putting Mia down. Whether it was the high expectations of her grandma, Lily’s condescendence, her peers’ gossip, parliament’s demands, or her own desire to be the best queen she could be. No matter what situation she was in, she was under a lot of pressure and condescendence. She was constantly put down by other people and by taking on the role of a political figure, those movies would not be the end of it. However, Joe highlights a famous quote from Eleanor Roosevelt in the first movie. He says, “no one has the power to make you feel inferior without your consent.” This Eleanor Roosevelt quote is only said once but is subtly put throughout the story line, and it’s one worth remembering.

Believe in yourself

Last but absolutely not least, Mia taught us all to believe in ourselves. Through all the skepticism, criticism and pressure, she taught us that we really can do it. Mia taught us the power of believing in yourself. She showed how hard it can be to get there, but how important it was. That belief in herself took two movies to get through, and by the end of the second, she believed in herself. She was confident in herself and what she could do. Mia gives the world the courage to believe in something wonderful, ourselves.