It's no secret that when it comes to prompting diverse body types, Disney hasn't exactly got the best record. When I was a kid, I wondered why I didn't have a perfectly proportioned body like the princesses I admired, or hair that always bounced in ringlets no matter the time or weather. But now one body-positive artist has taken the matter into her own hands and reimagined Disney characters as plus size princesses. [[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/B55iRljg5uy/]] In an interview with Scary Mommy, Crystal Walter, who runs <a class="link rapid-noclick-resp" href="https://www.instagram.com/neoqlassicalart/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-ylk="slk:runs Neoqlassical Art">Neoqlassical Art</a>, said that she was inspired to create the plus-size princesses by her younger self. "When I was a child, I was fat, and I despised my own body," she says. "I remember at age 12 or 13 having a conversation in a clothing store with my mother where I told her, 'I'm not even human-shaped.' "Knowing that I'm only one of a gazillion others who have had similar nasty thoughts is heartbreaking and devastating, and a big part of the problem is a lack of representation in popular media." [[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/CAoY3BPgFdw/]] Walter's experience is a reflection of the fact that if children don't see themselves represented in the media they consume, it can have a dangerous effect on their perception of their bodies. [[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/B8juOy0A0KU/]] This is why Walter found reimagining the body types of Disney princesses "therapeutic" and all the more so as she created them during a pandemic. "Creating art has been extremely helpful during this first half of the year, just keeping a sense of normalcy while everything else was falling apart. The world has changed so much, both in general, and personally since March," she says. <blockquote>"My father passed away in early March, and in the last real conversation we had, he mentioned how proud he was of the work I've been doing. And when I draw these days, it still feels like everything is the way it was… and provides a few hours of peace at a time."</blockquote> [[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/B8FGIoyghDE/]] Walter has been particularly touched by those who have reached out to her after seeing her reimagined Disney princess, which have helped many to realize that their bodies are great as they are. She said: "It's especially encouraging when I hear about people using my art in school presentations on body image, or hear that parents who follow me show the pictures to their children." [[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/CAsyemSAxY_/]] One of Walter's most celebrated artworks is of all the Disney princesses portrayed as plus size women together. Featured above, she explained that it took her almost two years to imagine them all digitally, "and the brilliance of that is that it only took a few hours to stitch them all together in one image." "I know it's still missing a few characters who deserve to be there such as Eilonwy from The Black Cauldron or Kida from Atlantis: The Lost Empire," she said. [[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/CAdskXPgPRR/]] Walter said that her next move would ideally be to create a fashion line for plus size people, or even just to help another's be "size and ability inclusive." "Everyone deserves clothes that fit properly and make them look and feel phenomenal, and not enough companies have yet put effort into making this possible," she said. If you'd like more of Walter's plus size princesses in your life, their images are available to purchase as t-shirts on her <a href="https://www.teepublic.com/en-gb/user/neoqlassical">online store</a>.

Body positive artist reimagines Disney characters as plus-size princesses

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