A 17-year-old girl from Virginia has launched a petition asking Disney to break the classic cartoon mold and create a plus-sized princess.
Jewel Moore said in the Change.org petition, "If Disney could make a plus-size female protagonist who was as bright, amazing, and memorable as their others, it would do a world of good for those plus-size girls out there who are bombarded with images that make them feel ugly for not fitting the skinny standard."
The junior at Fuqua High School in Farmville launched the petition on Jan. 24, Yahoo Shine reported. The online document had garnered more than 4,300 signatures as of Saturday morning.
"I made this petition because I'm a plus-size young woman, and I know many plus-size girls and women who struggle with confidence and need a positivie plus-size character in the media," she wrote.
Jewel had initially planned to write a letter to the company, whose first Disney princess was Snow White in 1937, but realized that having backup would make her plea stronger.
She also pointed out in her petition that children's views of themselves often correlate with how they are represented in media.
Jewel noted Disney's widespread influence in her petition, saying that they influence many children, especially girls.
"It would be revolutionary for Disney to show support to a group of girls who are otherwise horrendously bullied by the media," she said in the petition. "It would make many young girls feel confident and worthy to see a strong character that looks like them."
Yahoo Shine listed a few examples of when Disney left its usual "princess aesthetic" to create women like tomboyish, unruly-haired Merida in 2012's "Brave" or African-American Tiana in "The Princess and the Frog" in 2009.
Disney princesses have been frequently white like Ariel in "The Little Mermaid" and Belle in "Beauty and the Beast" and are also often blonde, examples including Cinderella, Aurora and Rapunzel.
Despite straying from the typical princess for such heroines as Pocahontas and Mulan, one thing Disney hasn't changed is body type: Princesses always have tall, slim figures.
"To be clear, I'm not asking for Disney to stop making thin princesses," Jewel said, as quoted by Yahoo Shine. "I would just like to see a princess with a different body shape. Where's the pear-shaped princess? The short princess? The chubby princess?"
And Jewel's message isn't just for little girls.
"I want little boys to see plus-size Disney princesses," she said, "so they don't grow up and think women they date have to look perfect."
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