From superheroes to princesses

Recently, I organized a friend’s playroom. Her dress-up trunk was spilling out onto the floor and was in need of some serious attention. There were so many princess dresses that took up so much space that I decided to neatly hang the dresses in a bedroom closet. While I was hanging the dresses, I thought of the little girl donning each dress, imagining she was truly Belle, Elsa, or Cinderella. I smiled and gently closed the closet door. 

I returned to the dress-up trunk and decided to put all the crowns in a pile. Some were hairpieces that had long braids attached, or a beautiful veil dotted with rhinestones. Earrings, necklaces, purses, and rings were neatly placed into separate sections. Plastic high heels were set aside as I imagined this sweet girl hobbling around in them trying to gracefully get to her tea party.  

Next, there were lots of capes. Batgirl, Supergirl, Wonder Woman, and more. I neatly folded all the capes “Marie Kondo” style into the trunk. I grinned as I thought of girls wanting to save the day, too. We all have that in us, don’t we? Especially as a kid, there’s something magical about putting a cape and mask on and leaping from couch cushion to couch cushion and then into a mound of blankets. There’s something in us that yearns for adventure. 

And then I thought, when does that stop? When do we become disinterested in becoming a superhero? Perhaps it’s when we approach the tween stage and are officially “too cool” for dress-up. But ask any dad on Halloween if he’s having the time of his life wearing a coordinating Star Wars costume with his toddler, or a teacher wearing a Wonder Woman costume on a staff dress-up day (not that I’m speaking from experience :)) if she’s loving every minute of it. The answer is a resounding yes. 

The truth is, we never really tire of yearning for adventure. To be the one who saves the day. That’s why we still cheer for the underdog to win that football game, or for the Avengers to save the day in all of the Marvel movies. It’s okay to still want to be that superhero. So the next time you’re throwing all of your kids’ costumes back into the dress-up trunk, if you want to try on the Superman mask to see if it still fits, go for it. I won’t say a word.