“You Can’t Be a Princess” | Journalists from ABC’s “What Would You Do?” planted hidden cameras in a Halloween store and filmed shoppers’ reactions to a boy who wanted a princess costume and a girl who wanted a Spiderman costume.

Assholes. Every. Last. One.

This makes me so glad that my parents let us grow up the way we did. I kinda flopped around between things aimed at boys or girls, and somehow it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal when it’s a boyish girl vs. a girly boy. 

My brother liked to steal my princess shoes and wear them around the house. We actually had a photo framed on our mantlepiece of my brother wearing my green and white heels, posing while holding onto the banister railing at the base of the stairs. And at one point I hosted a “fashion show” where my cousins and brothers all dressed up with things found in my grandma’s dress-up box, and I was the “announcer” as they all pranced out one by one, dressed in sparkly, girly things. Did I mention that it was mostly boys? We have a ton of photos of it and it’s so fun to see how stupidly giggly we were about the whole thing. Where the boys wore dresses and things, my girl cousin and her friend dressed in boyish things - my cousin wearing absolutely no top aside from a cowhide vest, and her friend wearing a bloody zombie mask. Also, my cousin was a tomboy to the point that until she hit puberty everyone thought she was a boy, because of how she dressed and acted [i.e., running around the neighborhood topless].

I’ve asked my mom about it, and she and my grandma have very similar thinking about things like this. If something makes us kids happy, then they’d let us enjoy it. Regardless of the gender stereotypes at the time. We only get to be kids once, and it doesn’t matter if it’s a permanent behavior or just a phase we’re going through. Just let us have fun; it doesn’t hurt anyone. 

I’m.. kinda tempted to find and put up photos of the fashion show incident now. My cousin’s Cruella Deville-esque outfit was the best. Especially when he ripped off the fur coat after sauntering around seductively, and started jumping around in a shiny silver leotard. That is still one of my favorite memories from my grandma’s old house.