For parents of daughters that are not blond-haired and blue-eyed, the "princess phase" of girlhood is often something to be endured and puzzled over. I watched, pained, as my beautiful black-haired daughter spent much of her third year asking for blond dolls. By kindergarten there was a powerful group of girls that controlled her classroom's social dynamics -- all blond. One mom noted she'd heard that could happen as blond girls become the anointed ones at very young ages.

My younger daughter is now in her princess love phase. And, specifically, it is the blond princesses of The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) that are somehow her favorites -- Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty. Belle of "Beauty and the Beast" has light brown hair and she gets a nod as does red-haired Ariel of "The Little Mermaid." Whatever Disney does to get into the hearts and minds of children, it does very well since these are not toys or brands we've chosen to emphasize as parents.

So when I learned that Disney will create its first black princess, I breathed a sigh of relief. The hand-drawn animated musical, set in New Orleans and called "The Frog Princess" will feature "Maddy," a young resident of the French Quarter. It won't be released until 2009, but I'll surely take my daughters to it -- even though they will by then, thankfully, both be out of the princess phase, which seems to end mercifully around age four.