Disney is famous for telling the best friends and family stories. We can all relate to one character or another's story. Whether that's Cinderella who comes from a toxic family or Ariel the Little Mermaid who just wants some independence. The characters have their ups and downs in their story arcs just like we do. And in order to get through these hard times, these characters need love and support like we do or else they wouldn't be who they are at the end of the movie.

To love and support a friend or family member, a person has to do one or more of these five actions to show that they care. These are called the five love languages and can be applied to significant others, friends, and family.

Giving words of Affirmation: (ex: compliments, verbal encouragement, digital communication, and texting)

Spending quality time with one another: (ex: hanging out with friends, active listening, talking, and participating in activities)

Giving gifts: (Ex: receiving visual symbols of love, usually an object or digital gift)

Acts of Service: (Ex: bringing food or drinks, doing chores for another person, helping someone get up the stairs, and cleaning up after someone)

Physical Touch: (Ex: kissing, cuddling, hugging, hand holding, warmth, and comfort)

We've made a list of some of the most iconic moments of modern-day princesses giving or receiving love and support in one of these five ways.

The Secret Society of Second-Born Royals

1) Words of Affirmation

In The Secret Society of Second-Born Royals, second-born royals, Sam and Roxana have a unique relationship during training sessions and as roommates. They don't always understand each other and won't even talk to each other at first. Roxana, who is obsessed with social media and is always caring about what people think of her, is sensitive and snappy at the beginning of the movie. While Sam wants to complete training and please her mother. During one of Roxana's training sessions, her mentor, Professor James, pushes her too hard while she struggles to use her powers to become invisible. As Roxanna struggles to complete her one task, to become invisible, Professor James threatens to take her phone from her and post and live stream her training without her consent. This threat finally causes her to gain enough courage and determination to turn herself invisible. Although, she doesn't seem too happy about achieving her training goal. In the next scene, Roxana is seen crying in her dorm room and blasting music through her headphones. A moment later, her roommate, Sam hesitates by the doorframe of their room before walking in to see what's wrong. Sam asks Roxana why she is crying. Roxana's subtle response is that she turned herself invisible. And Sam cannot understand why her friend is upset about accomplishing her goal since she is such a rebellious go-getter, unlike Roxana. Whereas, Roxana is insecure and always on her phone trying to post her daily updates. Once Roxana explains that her entire life is online and that nobody saw her turn herself invisible, she starts crying again. Sam says two different things that are words of affirmation, "Why can't you be yourself without all that internet live-streaming" and "You look awful.

The words of affirmation that Sam says to Roxanna have two different meanings. After Roxana tells her that she turned herself invisible, Sam uses the word 'great' as an alternative way to say 'I am proud of you' since Roxana has struggled to turn herself invisible for half of the movie. On the other hand, Sam also uses the word 'awful' as a word of affirmation to compliment Roxana sarcastically. Viewers can tell that Sam is just kidding, and does not actually think that Roxana looks awful since you can see the two girls giggling and hugging afterward. This sarcastic moment shows that they have gained a step forward in their friendship because they struggled to communicate with each other when they met in the training school. It also shows that words of affirmation don't have to be serious; they can be sarcastic and playful.

The Princess Diaries

2 ) Spending Quality Time with One Another

In the first Princess Diaries movie, there's an iconic scene where Mia's grandmother, Queen Clarisse Ronaldi of Genovia goes out to the San Francisco Pier with Mia to play with a mechanical arm wrestling machine. Hanging out is an activity that the Queen is not supposed to do because it makes her look foolish in the press. So It takes a while for the queen to learn about what fun and quality time means to her granddaughter though. Leading up to this quality time scene, Mia causes a huge disaster at the Genovia State Dinner. Mia's disaster and unfortunate series of events causes her to show up in the newspaper the next day, meaning that the future princess is in the tabloids. Then the night before Mia's princess training at her Grandma/ The Queen's house while Mia is in bed she goes over to look at a Genovian relic from her dad and says "Sorry I let you down, dad." Mia is upset about destroying the Genovian State Dinner and also disapproves of her grandma, who is also the queen of Genovia.

The following day after Mia's meltdown, Mia and her Grandma, Queen Clarisse Ronaldi have a discussion about Mia's state dinner mishap during the time when they are supposed to have princess training. In this scene, Mia uses a watering can to water her grandma's plants and is completely silent. This is the first time that Queen Clarisse goes into full-grandma mode and realizes that Mia is still upset about what she did to cause a stir at the state party. First, Queen Ronaldi tells her granddaughter that she made mistakes too when she was training to be royalty, And then, instead of pressuring her granddaughter even more, Queen Clarisse decides to cancel princess training. She realizes that she has put too much pressure and stress on Mia who didn't even want to become a Princess in the beginning. In fact, Mia didn't even have a relationship with her grandma when she found out she was going to be the princess of Genovia. She wanted to be a teenage girl who was outcasted in high school and known for her anxiety attacks.

The Princess Diaries 2 Royal Engagement

3) Giving Gifts

In The Princess Diaries 2 Royal Engagement, it's been 5 years since Mia found out she was a Princess. She has graduated from high school and college and is now about to celebrate her 21st birthday in Genovia. Mia has a lot of pressure and responsibility put on her since she is destined to take over her grandma's role as Queen. At the beginning of the movie, viewers watch Mia take on her royal responsibilities like a kind princess would but also break down and act dramatically as any 20-year-old would. This shows that sometimes princesses need love and support too.

As a result of Mia's lack of freedom, her grandmother takes her aside one day when she acts overwhelmed and surprised by showing her brand new bedroom in the Genovia Castle. Along with her new bedroom, Queen Clarisse has also been given brand new sunglasses to protect her eyes from the paparazzi, jewelry to wear to events, outfits to wear to appeal to the media, and new tiaras. While these are all items that are expected to be handed down to a princess from a queen, the gifts also show that Grandma Clarisse cared about her granddaughter's well-being. Mia has the right to want to go shopping for new outfits and accessories, as a young woman but was unable to because of all her royal and birthday responsibilities for her country. Princesses are people just like us who deserve to receive gifts, and kindness, even if they are responsible for being kind themselves.

Princess Protection Program

4) Acts of Service

Another iconic modern-day Disney princess is Princess Rosie Gonzalez from the Disney Channel Original Movie, The Princess Protection Program. Rosie is the Princess of the kingdom of Costa Luna. She is used to serving her kingdom's people and family and is about to be crowned Queen of Costa Luna. When she is unable to protect her country because of an enemy trying to attack her family, Major Mason of the Princess Protection Program takes her away from her family. Once Rosie has gone through a transformation, she is sent to live with Major Mason and his daughter, Carter in Louisiana. Louisiana is the total opposite of Costa Luna. It's basically the swamp and nature side of Louisiana. The Masons own a bait shop that smells like wilderness and fishing and is not ideal for a Princess.

As a result of Rosie's sudden and forced relocation to Louisiana, Rosie struggles to fit in and act like a normal teenager. She demands to have someone give her a task or responsibility around the house and feels as though she is incapable of being a princess in Louisiana. One day when Major Mason's daughter, Carter, gives her something to do. Rosie obeys her command and finds herself in the bait shop with dozens of buckets of worms in the bait shop to sort out for the fishing season. However, Rosie is not used to being around so much wildlife and dirt. All of the worms are in buckets on shelves and when she tries to reach them she falls and gets worms all over her body and hair. Carter's dad didn't know that his daughter gave the princess "chores" to do in the bait shop so as result he had to apologize for his daughter's actions and help Princess Rosie out.. Once Carter is given her punishment for giving Rosie her chores, Rosie is sent to the house to shower and clean up. Later on, Rosie is seen organizing a special family dinner through the garden window. She feels as if it is her duty as a princess to apologize to Major Mason for ruining his bait shop and worms. So instead of formally apologizing, she made them a home-cooked dinner and flower crowns.

Enchanted

5) Physical touch

Lastly, there's the love language of physical touch which includes kissing, hand-holding, hugging, and other physical examples of showing affection. In the movie Enchanted, we see Giselle, who is not a princess but is from a fairytale land and is lost in New York City. She's confused, cold in a dirty dress from the sewer and rain, and lonely when she meets her prince charming. And coincidentally, her prince charming, Robert, has a daughter, Morgan who is smarter, kinder, and different than what Giselle thinks. Morgan loves princesses and fairy tales, she wants to keep Giselle in her apartment even though Giselle is a stranger to her dad. Morgan is just a kid who wants someone to play with and a mother to do her hair into a ponytail. This is sad but also great for Giselle, who already acts super kind and princess-like.

One night, when Robert gets home late from work, he peeps his head into Morgan's bedroom and sees Giselle telling his daughter a wild story about the Big Bad Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood, which is not like the fairytale from the books. It's a weird rendition of the fairytale from Giselle's land, Andalusia. Despite the odd bedtime story, Morgan thanks Giselle for being so kind enough to be her mother figure for the night and kisses Giselle on the cheek. Giselle smiles back. This action is a sweet example of the love language, and physical touch, but it also shows that sometimes a future princess needs physical and emotional support and love too, especially one that has never been shown what love and family look like in a non-fairytale setting.

Fun Facts:

-The pictures in Carter's house in Princess Protection Program are childhood photos from Selena Gomez's childhood.

-A couple of the actresses who voiced iconic Disney princesses were also in Enchanted. Such as Jodi Benson and Paige O'Hara who were the voices of Belle and Ariel the Little Mermaid.

-Mandy Moore was the singer who was on the beach when Mia was on her romantic date in the Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement.

Questions:

-How have your friends shown you support during a hard time?

-Do you like to receive gifts or give them?

-What is your preferred love language?