The Princess Principle
Women Helping Women Discover Their Royal Spirit
Edited by Jana L. High and Marilyn Sprague-Smith, M.Ed. 

     We've had movies that trade on a little girl's desire to grow up to be cared for by a handsome prince, including The Princess Diaries, Maid in Manhattan and other Cinderella stories that pretend to have an up-to-date twist for the modern woman. We have fashion designers exploiting women's desire for the glass slipper with five inch heels that will trash the posture and disintegrate the spine. The Princess Principle is not part of this trend.

     Full of essays by eighteen women who share their hope, joy and expertise, this is a book of inspiration. The title may attract the very woman who needs it. It is an authentic inducement because our culture has made the idea of being a princess a part of our psyches that we might as well turn to our advantage.

     The editors, Jana L. High and Marilyn Sprague-Smith, M. Ed., have assembled literate, well-educated women with different stories and different angles on how we might improve ourselves and still live with-even accept-what now may appear to be our natural urge to be a princess. For these women, The Princess Principle isn't about being rescued or prissing up to impress but about knowing, internally, that we are beautiful and important in the ways that count.

     The format of this book is rare among anthologies. It gives each contributor full and complete billing, including her name on the front cover and her picture on the back.

     It is also careful to list the credentials of each author, so the reader has a sense of who each of them is. Some might even be a woman the reader would consider as a coach or advisor in her real life whether it's the life of a confident, new-age princess or someone who is just learning to be one.

     My bet is that not one of the contributors is a princess in the traditional sense and that every one of them is making her own way, happily and with self assurance, in this big, bad, wonderful world.