That’s what you get when you change stylists…

When we were on our trip at the beginning of June, my mom gave Claire a Princess Blanket to go with the Princess Pillow she’d given to her last year. My sister (Aunt Two) and I were talking about the princesses emblazoned on the blanket.

“Okay, that looks like Cinderella, and that looks like the one from Beauty and the Beast,” my sister said…doing pretty well for someone, who with four boys, has been indoctrinated in all things Power Ranger™ and Transformer™. “But, who is that?” my sister asked.

“That?” I said, pointing to the bright blonde lady dressed in pink. “That is Sleeping Beauty, if you can believe it.’

“What!?” she gasped. “I thought she had brown hair!?”

“Me too!” I said in agreement. “I couldn’t believe this was Sleeping Beauty. She’s just not what I remember…I’m so glad to hear you say that! I thought I was going crazy. You remember her with brown hair, too, right?”

She did. Thank goodness I wasn’t alone.

I then explained that after taking the Princess Pillow home last year, one of our little friends had told us who all the Princesses where. When she’d called that one Sleeping Beauty, I went online and discovered that she was right. That bright blonde in the hot pink dress was Sleeping Beauty. Prior to that pillow, Claire wasn’t familiar with all the Disney Princesses, and neither was I. My sisters and I had a fondness for Snow White and Cinderella, but nothing like the fever-pitch surrounding All the Princesses these days.

I was sure my siblings and I had watched an older version of Sleeping Beauty, and in my mind, she had brown hair. The Sleeping Beauty of today was not familiar to me.

But, I didn’t think much of it. I mean, she is who she is. If they say this one is Sleeping Beauty, then this one is Sleeping Beauty. It popped into my Random Thoughts post the other day, but other than that, I let it go. (Speaking of changes…have you seen the new Strawberry Shortcake?? Talk about a change!! But, I digress…)

Then, this weekend, I got a couple of emails from my sister. She and the boys had been watching an older version of The Sword in the Stone, and during the previews, she saw clips of Sleeping Beauty…with brown hair.

She couldn’t believe her eyes. This was the Sleeping Beauty of our childhood!

She found a picture online and emailed me right away.

I don’t know who to credit for this photo, but there it is.

Now, depending on your childhood television set and your how-many-years-ago-did-we-see-this? memory, you may see this as a dark blonde. My sister and I saw it as a lighter brown. If you notice, she’s not wearing pink…she’s wearing a beautiful blue dress. We weren’t “really into her,” so we didn’t pay close enough attention to her hair color or changes over the years, but in our minds she wasn’t a blonde.

Click photo to enlarge.
Clicking a second time will show more detail.

Here is the Sleeping Beauty of today. She is the one with bright blond hair and the hot pink dress, standing next to Cinderella, who hasn’t changed stylists over the years. (Belle, from Beauty and the Beast, is also on the blanket, but you can’t see her in this photo…and as far as I can tell, she hasn’t changed stylists either.)

It’s amazing what a different stylist can do to your image.