Kristen Bell would like to warn you about super creepy messages in fairy tales

Posted in Preschool.
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Actor Kristen Bell and her husband Dax Shepard are parents to two little girls – three-year-old Delta and five-year-old Lincoln – and they’re raising their kiddos to be brilliant little critical thinkers.

Stranger danger and creepy kisses

Speaking to Parents Magazine, Kristen said that a cosy snuggle with a book is one of the best bits of parenting.

“It’s truly my favourite part of the day,” Kristen confirms. “I glance away from the book and see their brains working while we’re all cuddled up like meerkats.”

That said, some old favourites – often books from her own childhood that her mum has passed down to the girls – have some questionable narratives. She’s keen to dig deeper into those with her kids.

“Every time we close Snow White I look at my girls and ask, ‘Don’t you think it’s weird that Snow White didn’t ask the old witch why she needed to eat the apple? Or where she got that apple?’ I say, ‘I would never take food from a stranger, would you?’ And my kids are like, ‘No!’ And I’m like, ‘Okay, I’m doing something right.'”

It’s not just issues of stranger danger and food safety that the fairytale characters/writers of fairytales need schooling on. There are issues of consent at play too.

“Don’t you think that it’s weird that the prince kisses Snow White without her permission?” Kristen said she has asked her daughters. “Because you can not kiss someone if they’re sleeping!”


Read more about Kristen Bell:


Hairy tales, more like it

Let’s face it, Kristen is onto something here. Those fairytales have some pretty traditional messages about women and where they belong.

It might be twiddling her thumbs trapped in a tower, letting some dude climb up her bonkers-long hair a la Rapunzel. #OUCH.

Or perhaps it’s shut away in a room doing manual labour like the poor straw-spinning lass in Rumpelstiltskin?  #STAHP

Or maybe it’s taking note of the sinister message that if you head off into the woods to do a good deed, someone nasty will follow you and possibly gobble up your grandma. #UGH

WE love it that Kristen’s turning these stories on their head – and using them to spark family discussions about life’s big things.

PS: A Veronica Mars reboot is coming to our small screens real soon!

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