Once Upon a Time
Like most young women in my generation (ahem, Gen Z), I grew up on the Happily Ever Afters that Disney fed me. I was enamored with Belle and Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty as a little girl, dressing up as them on a daily basis and running around the house in my costumes. (I know my mom has numerous photos of me dressed up, but I refuse to post any for y’all’s amusement!) As I grew older, I devoured dozens of fairy tale retellings and also watched the live action films that Disney started producing. To put it simply: I absolutely love fairy tales.
There’s just something about magical lands and pretty castles that puts me in a good mood. In middle school, I read the Once Upon a Time retellings published by Simon Pulse. I loved the spin on the traditional fairy tales. In high school, I delved into darker, gritty fairy tale retellings, as well as binge-watched all of the Once Upon a Time, Sleepy Hollow, and Beauty and the Beast (2012) TV shows. And during my quarantine a few weeks ago, I watched all three Descendants films, which revolve around the children of Disney villains and heroes.
If you would like to read some fairy tale retellings that have happy endings, I highly recommend Beastly by Alex Flinn, which is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, and Entwined by Heather Dixon Wallwork, which is a retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses. Or, if you want to watch a movie, you should definitely see La Belle et La Bête, a French film that, while the acting isn’t superb, has an aesthetic that is absolutely gorgeous. (If you want to watch the trailer, click here. You can turn on the subtitles!)
(Can you tell that my favorite fairy tale is Beauty and the Beast?)
However, it’s not just the traditionally labeled “fairy tales” that I love. There’s a special place in my heart for the magical, the mystical, and the supernatural. I’m a sucker (haha) for a really good Dracula tale. The story of Hades and Persephone is my favorite Greek myth. (But I’m sure you could already guess that!) And in general, I love it when writers take any old story and turn it on its head. I find retellings, no matter the subject matter, inspiring to me.
One of my favorite areas to explore in fairy tales is the villain. I personally find villains so much more interesting than the heroes. Some of my favorite villains include Loki, Wilson Fisk, Rumpelstiltskin, and Hannibal Lecter. A few years ago, I read this fascinating article that suggested Jafar was really the hero of the story—or attempted to be—and Aladdin was the villain. Fairy tales allow for us to look at people—even horrible people—in a different light. Sometimes we want them to find redemption, but other times we want to ride along with them as they wreak havoc and destruction.
Often I get discouraged when I’m writing; but when I read a retelling, I am reminded that no one else can write my story exactly like I do. Someone could have my outline or know all about my characters, but they would never be able to write my story the exact way that I do. And I think that’s so beautiful—it's one of the many aspects of storytelling that I love.
Take a break from the news. Go forth and read a fairy tale. Remind yourself of the magic of kindness and love. (Or find a villain to sympathize with. After all, most villains are just traumatized people.)