Amethyst!
I am 12 again. I discovered a lovely blog entry by Shaenon K. Garrity discovering the Amethyst maxi series in the cheap bins. You can even see the original Amethyst cover I might have traced ahem borrowed for my own uses. I was actually more partial to Pegasus than Unicorns when I was younger, because, hello, Pegasus can fly? Because every girl wants her own flying horse, don't they? (Can you tell I also liked She-Ra?)
Garrity brings an interesting quote from Sandman about the difference between girls & boys fantasies:
"Little boys have fantasies in which they're faster, or smarter, or able to fly," says the dream-stealing Cuckoo. "Where they hide their faces in secret identities, and listen to the people who despise them admiring their remarkable deeds... Now, little girls, on the other hand, have different fantasies. Much less convoluted. Their parents are not their parents. Their lives are not their lives. They are princesses. Lost princesses from distant lands."
Now that quote simplifies things a lot. I don't see how having a different life is any less convoluted. It's a logistical nightmare when you're supposed to be deputizing knights at noon, but you have to concentrating on fractions instead. And I wasn't just a lost princess. I had to protect my identity from my enemies because you never knew who could find you hiding in the boring suburbs. The funny part is realizing how much the girls' fantasy fits the basic description of the Harry Potter books. Dreaming you're somewhere else or dreaming you're from somewhere else is a basic part of fantasy, whether you're a boy or girl.
Garrity brings an interesting quote from Sandman about the difference between girls & boys fantasies:
"Little boys have fantasies in which they're faster, or smarter, or able to fly," says the dream-stealing Cuckoo. "Where they hide their faces in secret identities, and listen to the people who despise them admiring their remarkable deeds... Now, little girls, on the other hand, have different fantasies. Much less convoluted. Their parents are not their parents. Their lives are not their lives. They are princesses. Lost princesses from distant lands."
Now that quote simplifies things a lot. I don't see how having a different life is any less convoluted. It's a logistical nightmare when you're supposed to be deputizing knights at noon, but you have to concentrating on fractions instead. And I wasn't just a lost princess. I had to protect my identity from my enemies because you never knew who could find you hiding in the boring suburbs. The funny part is realizing how much the girls' fantasy fits the basic description of the Harry Potter books. Dreaming you're somewhere else or dreaming you're from somewhere else is a basic part of fantasy, whether you're a boy or girl.