Admiring? ??? 🤔

Interesting choice of words. Respect, yes. Approval, probably a little much for the age set to have more tham a vague niggling of.

But admiration has to do with warm fuzzies. A sense of aspiring or wanting to be like something or someone.

Little girls are watching Disney movies for relatability. They want to see versions of themselves. They want to see possibilities for their future selves. Just look at the way little girls responded to Black Ariel. It was amazing. They saw themselves as a Disney Princess for the first time. (Tiana was made a princess).

In that context, I think what you're talking about here is off the mark a bit. If Cinderella is what a little girl wants to be, she will naturally admire those things about Cinderella. She doesn't need encouragement one way or the other. Likewise, why should a girl who's more ambitious or wants more or different than what the domestic sphere offers, be "encouraged" —and we all know what that coded language means— to admire a Princess representing a life she has zero interest in?

A more balanced respect and admiration will occur naturally as these girls grow and gain maturity. But at the age, they're looking for relateability....they'll find it where and how they find it and that should ALWAYS be up to and defined by them.

Maybe we should give girls a fair chance to get to know themselves without the constant scrutiny, grooming, and admonishments that they're not up to our satisfaction. Maybe it's more important to make sure they know that however their life falls...they're loved regardless. Even held in admiration themselves. That might be cool. Imagine that.