Rey: The New Icon to Replace Disney Princesses

Have you heard about Rey…?

If you haven’t, Rey is the female lead character of George Lucas biggest franchise of all time, “Star Wars, Episode VII: The Force Awakens”. In earlier Star Wars movies, from Anakin Skywalker to Luke Skywalker, men were always the lead characters but this legacy of almost 30 years has been changed by J.J.Abrams, who made a grand female single lead character, for the very first time which is strong, powerful and overshadows all the other characters by her charm, virtues and heroism.

“I tend to gravitate towards stories of women, of young women in situations – as I did with Felicity and Alias. And we were talking about ‘Who could this be?’ and I saw this young woman.“- J.J.Abrams

The character of Rey has been played by Daisy Ridley and she nailed it! She is an extremely talented and has given her outstanding performance. She is flawless and has done full justice to Rey’s character.

There are five characteristics of Rey which you can ever wish about any “Star Wars” female character and makes her superior than Disney princesses’.

1) Rey is bold and fearless

Rey is fearless, courageous and depict a strong persona of woman. Unlike princess Leia, she is tougher and can take care of herself. Rey is also different from Disney princesses’ as she never dreams that someday a young prince charming will come to rescue her. Instead Rey is fearless and strong enough to take care of herself and fight any battle. In most of Disney’s princesses movies except Frozen, we have seen most of them crying over unsettled things which they can solved by themselves. Instead of working hard to help themselves, they tend to cry until a prince charming comes and rescue them. Rey changes the stereotype belief that a girl can do anything in her life.

2) Rey is independent and skilled 

Rey is independent, skilled and tenacious. She is a scavenger who was born to unknown parents and at the age of five, she was left to planet Jakku. During her lifetime, she learnt to survive becoming a gifted mechanic, pilot and warrior. She pilots the Millennium Falcon!

3) Rey gives a new definition to beauty

Rey wears shabby clothes but still looks adorable. Rey has given a new definition to beauty which is not about wearing revealing and expensive dresses and shaking booties but a woman can look elegant and sensuous even covering herself from top to bottom. 

 4) Rey is compassionate

Rey is kind and compassionate too. She protects the droid BB-8 from Teedo, a brutish scavenger that roams Jakku’s vast wasteland who wants to take BB-8 from her. She also made Teedo very clear that BB-8 is not for a sale. Though she has no family and stays alone on her planet but she has a heart full of emotions and save the droid which even doesn’t belong to her.

5) Rey is a born warrior

Rey fights with Kylo Ren, who represents ‘The Dark Side’, with Anakin and Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber and defeated Ren, prompting him to flee. It was the first time we have seen any girl dominating the lightsaber and fighting elegantly without any prior Jedi training in Star Wars.

Thank you George Lucas and J.J.Abrams for giving us Rey who will be an inspiration to millions of girls around the globe that they are not inferior to anyone and can fight any obstacles in their lives. It is the duty of all parents to make their daughters understand that princesses’ are perceived to be perfect without flaws only in stories. This gives young girls the impression that they have to be perfect and if they are not, they are not princess material. In fact, parents have to make their little girls fearless, courageous, optimistic and strong to face any challenges.  Fingers crossed as the days are not far when Rey will be replacing Disney’s princesses’ and you will see little girls wearing  Rey’s costume on Halloween’s in the coming years. 

P.S.- This post also got published in Huff Post, US. You can find it here.