Who Is the Youngest Disney Princess? She’s Actually From One of the First Disney Films Ever Made
Other than Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse, Disney’s most well-known characters are Disney princesses. There’s magic, song, and kindness that surrounds these princesses and they make up a big genre of Disney movies. They, of course, teach children watching some life lessons but they’re also pretty and make for great photo-ops at the Disney Parks.
They’re all cartoons, with more recent ones being CGI and more realistic, so it’s hard to tell how old they are. And since they’re going on adventures and typically voiced by adults — and most of us watched them as kids — they seem older than they canonically are. But most of them are teenagers. So who’s the youngest? The oldest Disney princess movie actually holds the answer
A few Disney princesses are 16 years old
As stated above, many of these Disney princesses are teenagers, despite not seeming like it. Parents have little to no place in these stories, so that’s another factor that “ages up” these princesses.
Regardless, when we get down to how old they are, several are 16. The most well-known 16-year-old is Aurora, or Sleeping Beauty, whose whole story revolves around her turning 16. The curse is all about her 16th birthday and how she’d go into an eternal slumber, which is why her parents sent her away to the cottage in the woods with the three fairies.
Another is Ariel from The Little Mermaid, who is the youngest of her many sisters. It’s mentioned that she’s 16 but very briefly. Merida from Brave is also 16 years old. It’s not a big part of her story but it was mentioned in other places. Which makes her parents wanting to marry her off a bit weird to think about but a lot of these stories take place in a medieval setting. So it was normal back then.
Moana and Mulan aren’t princesses, but they still aren’t the youngest
Another 16-year-old princess would be Moana, however, she’s not technically a princess. As she adamantly tells Maui in Moana, “First, I’m not a princess,” to which he replies, “If you wear a dress and you have an animal sidekick, you’re a princess.”
He… sort of has a point with Disney’s M.O. However, her dad is a chief, not a king, and Moana’s official title isn’t “princess.” Regardless, she is included in a lot of princess merchandise.
Another would-be Disney princess is Mulan who is also 16 (speculatively). However, she also is less of a princess than Moana is. She doesn’t come from royalty or any ruling family at all. She’s a warrior and her father served in China’s Imperial army before her. However, she’s often been included in the Disney princess brand and merchandise. So she might count.
The very first Disney princess is actually the youngest
As for the youngest, that’s Snow White from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. She’s the young age of 14, reportedly, which makes her vast knowledge of cleaning and dealing with a wicked stepmother even sadder. It’s also really interesting that the youngest Disney princess is the oldest Disney film made.
While Walt Disney’s studio had made cartoons prior to Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and created characters such as Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and Mickey Mouse, Snow White was the studio’s first feature-length film. According to Walt Disney’s website, the movie premiered in 1937 and used a “sophisticated” multipane camera to show depth.
As HuffPost pointed out, Snow White being 14 is getting a little too weird. Yes, the young age for marriage was common in “olden days,” as stated before. But 14? A bit hard to take that one. And right above her was Princess Jasmine from Aladdin who was 15. Even creepier when you consider it came out in the ‘90s and Jafar wanted to use her as a… slave at one point. And Jafar is an old man in comparison to her.
So regardless of what happens with Snow White, she’s just 14 and chilling with the seven dwarves. But she can also speak to animals, so maybe that was a little more concerning.
