Let's get the facts straight. I am no heroine and I will never bring pride to my family. I am what you could call a failure. My grades? Average. My social life? Average. Talents? Hmm... well, I think I have none. I'm not exceptional in any way and I know I'm a disappointment for my father. And in this day and age there's no way I could just take my father's place to save him from a horrible fate.  There is a huge weight on my shoulders but I can't carry it no matter how hard I try. I have no idea what I can do, I only know what I can't do. Yet I still would try anything to make my father proud, even just once. Oh right, I forgot to tell you whom I was name after. Yes, I was named after Mulan, that bright heroine who saved China and brought pride to her family. Talk about big expectations. But Mulan doesn't suit me, so it's just Ann. -:-:- BOOK #4 in the Aware Princess Series flower: Peony, it symbolises "Prosperity, honor (in China)."

As someone who's been so pampered to the point of oblivion, I never noticed the similarities with the fairy-tale. Every little girl should see her father as a king and her home is her kingdom. Almost every girl wants to be a princess or is treated as one. Some approach that more than others. I was one of those who are really close to be one. With a father that was like a king, soon came a stepmother hungry for power and money. Of course, I only realised that when Dad wasn't in the picture anymore. It wasn't jealousy because I was prettier than her, or that I think, what pushed her to hate me and to try to get rid of me; it was that as soon as I was twenty-one I would end up inheriting all of my father's business. Not her. So I had to disappear for her to be the only queen. Just like in the fairy tale, someone was hired to get rid of me. Did your parents read the tale to you? They didn't to me, so maybe that's why I didn't notice how much I resemble that princess. So that's me: Blanca, like Snow... Snow White. BOOK 5 In the Aware Princess Series flower: Thornapple, it symbolises "disguise."

I've always been a different kind of girl. That girl whose best friends were books but never kids her age, and who was too smart for her own sake but who would never let some step on her. My father is a dreamer, someone who aims too high and I love him very dearly, but sometimes he gets himself in problems... and drags me along the way. I lost my mother when I was barely a teenager but she taught me many things. She always called me her little beauty, saying I was the most beautiful girl she had ever seen, telling me how much I reminded her of that princess in The Beauty and The Beast. Her favourite fairy tale yet my least favourite one. I never thought I was going to have to deal with a beast, a total jerk for my father's sake. Karma got me because here I am, in the middle of a pretty similar situation to my least favourite fairy tale. But I'm not only the beauty to this beast, I'm more than that. I'm brave, I'm bold... I'm Belle. -:-:- BOOK #3 in the Aware Princess Series flower: Amaryllis, it symbolises "pride."