Written by Duana

Okay. I have an announcement to make. “PRINCESS” HAS LEFT THE BUILDING.

Let me back it up a little bit. When I worked at etalk, we were writing a lot of stories about Christina Aguilera and Beyonce and so forth. The word “Diva” came up a lot. One day, our boss told us we were officially not allowed to use the word anymore unless writing about, like, Aretha.

I would like to assume a similar edict with the word “Princess”.

I know, I’m cold and heartless and you don’t understand why I don’t like anything ever at all and why I can’t just let girls have fun. And just because she wore a blush-coloured gown tonight doesn’t mean anything. But all I heard from every commentator tonight was how Hailee Steinfeld is a ‘princess’.

I agree with everyone, even though I didn’t want to. I think Hailee Steinfeld is kind of ridiculously cute, and probably deserves a lot of the admiration that’s coming her way, and she really started to win me over on the carpet when she deftly fielded question after question from adults that basically treated her like an alien. (Guys: She’s a teen. You can ask normal questions. WTF?)

But here’s why she won me over. Her category was toast really early on, and no matter how much she did or didn’t think she was going to win, Ms. Steinfeld would not have dropped an F bomb, I promise. Anyway, fast forward three hours, long after her nervous anticipation and adrenaline would have faded into boredom. Sandra Bullock called Jeff Bridges Dude – and Steinfeld giggled in delight like, well, a 14 year old. She can still be amused by simple things like adults using nicknames.

So even though the odds are against her, this kid might have a fighting chance of being normal. Can we please not infantilize her and call her a princess all the time just because she wears a dress that’s in a vague pink hue? Maybe she can grow up to be a person and not a giiiiiirl!??

It’s a hope.


Photos from MARK RALSTON/ROBYN BECK/Jason Merritt/Gettyimages.com