It's really important in the 21st century for kids to feel that they own the stories, the fairy stories, and that they can rewrite them imaginatively, creatively, cause kids are full of imagination, full of play, full of ideas. And we live in a world now where men and women are equal, we want them to be equal, there's still problems. So to get kids young at this age and to get them to look at fairy stories and say, "Hold on, I don't need to be the princess locked in the tower waiting for some guy to come and rescue me, maybe I'll find the way out". And for the boys to think, "Actually, I'd really rather have a girl who can manage things for her self, you know, earn her own money and get out of there, maybe kill the dragon".
And, you know, we're seeing lots of stories on TV and in film that are working with these, these new ideas. And I think in schools too, and in storytelling that mums and dads can do its really important to reinforce that, so that kids aren't just sitting back and saying, "Oh there's the new disney movie." They're thinking, "How can I change this story?" And you can do that just great at bedtime.
I think with telling stories, fairy stories in particular, the more you can get into a child's head the better because you're giving them something for life. And these are fantastic images and beautiful ideas about how things change. You know, fairy stories always end up with things changing, so the stock difficult problem is suddenly dissolved and transformed and kids need to believe that, so we're doing them a favor when we're telling them fairy stories. You know, it's not just made up fantasy, these are tools for life that change happens, and sometimes by miraculus interventions, things that you didnt plan. But the thing.. when we're thinking about gender for kids, it is important to balance the stories. It used to be that witches were always wicked and got shoved in the oven like Hansel and Gretel. Now we see that witches are often powerful: they're women who live on their own, they're not married to any men, they run their life their own way, they've got their own transport (the broomstick). They can do what they like, and it's great for girls to see that actually as a role model, you can live life in your own way, without having to marry the prince. So witch stories are great. And also, there's a lot of fairy stories where the male has been transformed into an animal. Sometimes a frog, like the frog pr-