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In these difficult times, many people, young and old, struggle with a negative self-image. It’s an unfortunate but true fact that we don’t always measure up to the image of who we want to be. The Cursed Princess Club is a WEBTOON comic that approaches the subject with care, humor, and a healthy dose of relatability.
LambCat. The Cursed Princess Club. 2019-present. 
LambCat. The Cursed Princess Club. 2019-present.
Set in the fairy tale land of the Pastel Kingdom, The Cursed Princess Club introduces us to Princess Gwendolyn, a young woman with a big heart. She is, however, not conventionally attractive according to fairy tale standards: while her two sisters are beautiful and talented in traditional Disney-like fashion, Gwen has dried-out, limp hair that hangs like seaweed, her skin is a queasy green color, and her eyes are bulgy. While her sisters wake up every morning tended to by gentle forest creatures, Gwen’s morning routine involves prying a possibly feral possum off her head. Even her brother possesses a beautify that’s literally blinding. In comparison, Gwen is, according to Prince Frederick of the Plaid Kingdom, “really ugly” (( LambCat. “The wake (part 3).” The Cursed Princess Club. WEBTOON, 2019. )).
Gwen’s perplexing “ugliness” comes as a great shock to the three Plaid Princes, who have each agreed to marry the Pastel Princesses. Once they arrive, they realize that Prince Jamie, whose appearance is extremely feminine, is not the third princess and that Gwen, once thought to be a demonic spirit haunting the royal portrait, is the one engaged to a very uncomfortable Prince Frederick. The misunderstanding causes a disagreement between the Plaid Princes and leads Gwen to overhear Frederick calling her ugly. This is the first time that Gwen has ever heard this; actually, even when she was mistaken for a witch by a witch, the true nature of the misunderstanding didn’t sink in. Her family treats her lovingly and constantly tells her that she is beautiful. Until this moment, that was what Gwen believed. Now, her self-image has been shattered.
Finding The Cursed Princess Club
Upset, Gwen attempts to play off the insult (no one knows that she heard, and Frederick is immediately scolded by his brothers). But Gwen’s kind-hearted nature becomes a detriment, as she is unable to bring herself to talk about the incident with her sisters or brother — they might retaliate. Then the marriage alliance with the Plaid Kingdom, one that all three of them were ecstatic about just hours before, would be ruined. Instead, Gwen panics and runs into the forest, where she sees a frightening sight — could they be monsters or witches? — and faints.
When she comes to, Gwen realizes that she has been taken to the mansion that is the home base for the Cursed Princess Club: a group of tightly-bonded princesses (and one prince) who have been afflicted with some terrible curse. Each one is grotesquely unique — including Jolie, who is kind enough but has only empty black sockets for eyes; Monika, who is sweet but tends to turn into a bird when she’s anxious (and she always is); Syrah, who is afflicted with the Pinocchio curse, causing her nose to grow every time she tells a lie; and many more. Each and every member of the Cursed Princess Club does their best to follow the mandatory rules, one of which is to love and support yourself, despite your curse. This positive mindset is charming and helps get the girls through some of the toughest moments of their lives. Rather than let the rest of the world dictate who they are and what should be done about their curses, the Cursed Princess Club accepts their curses and makes the choice to continue living happily.
While Gwen is scared and uncomfortable at first, due to the strange appearance of the Cursed Princess Club’s members, she quickly becomes friends with them, even going so far as to share what led her into the forest the night before. And although Gwen still isn’t completely convinced that the Cursed Princess Club isn’t a bunch of strange witches living in a secret mansion in the forest, she leaves with an invitation to come back and join the club.
Recognizing Hidden Self-Hate
Out of all the friendly members of the Cursed Princess Club, Princess Calpernia is the one who acts as a mentor to Gwen from the very beginning. As president of the club, Calpernia insists that all of the members support each other and themselves, even when it’s hard to do so. Extremely selfless, admirably positive, and annoyingly practical, the president is a big reason for Gwen’s improving self-image.
Calpernia was once the princess of the Polygon Kingdom until a traumatic experience with her controlling and violent fiancé, Prince Whitney, ended with her being cursed: she turns into a giant, blood-thirsty spider once a month. Due to her practical nature and instinct to protect others, Calpernia is very good at locking herself away when her curse is active. But the fact of the matter remains that she is also unhappy with her curse. Despite encouraging others and promoting positive self-talk, Calpernia herself doesn’t want to acknowledge an uncomfortable truth.
Actually, I don’t think it’s him [Whitney] I’m angry about. But his death and my guilt were always the last defenses I could rely on to hold back the overwhelming feeling that I hate my curse.
– Princess Calpernia (( LambCat. “Downpour (part 2).” The Cursed Princess Club. WEBTOON, 2020. ))
Hating something about herself (even a curse) is something that Calpernia instinctively hides from the rest of the Cursed Princess Club and from herself. On a journey of self-love, battling the self-hate is even more difficult when you lie to yourself about it.
Rescuing Yourself
In fairy tale stories, it’s easy to imagine a damsel in distress who needs help to escape a fearsome dragon or to find the stairs down from the tower. But the metaphor of being physically trapped corresponds to the feeling of being trapped, which is just as serious. If step one down the path to a positive self-image is recognizing the parts of yourself that you aren’t comfortable with, then step two is a rescue from this state of mind. While Prince Frederick himself becomes the inciting incident when Gwen overhears his hurtful words, it isn’t long before The Cursed Princess Club’s story extends beyond Gwen and the club and explores other characters who continually fail to practice self-love. Frederick is an example of someone who has been conditioned to believe that certain aspects of himself are bad and that he should be more like others.
In Frederick’s case, his blond, sunshiny appearance and love of books made him the target of bullying. The pressure from his father to be more manly like his brothers only reinforced the wrong belief that Frederick’s interests aren’t valid. But instead of changing his interests to fit in or figure out how to handle the situation himself in a healthy way, Frederick gives up.
By the end of my first day of military school, I had learned the harsh reality that I was a loser. None of my peers would talk to me or acknowledge my existence. I tried writing back home to Father for advice, but he made it pretty clear that I was not supposed to rely on him. So I chose to sink.
– Prince Frederick (( LambCat. “Prince Frederick (part 2).” The Cursed Princess Club, WEBTOON. 2019. ))
Unfortunately, by the time Frederick realized that he shouldn’t wait for someone to rescue him like in the fairy tales, his passion for his favorite things had fizzled out. Even though Frederick chooses not to indulge in his interests anymore, the ideas in his favorite fairy tales still impact his thoughts and actions — and not always in positive ways. Frederick is still stuck on the idea of being rescued from his sadness and inferiority, and his overactive imagination leads to many hilarious miscommunications between him and Gwen. But as Frederick spends more time with Gwen, he begins to see how kind-hearted she is, even though their relationship has been strained from the start.
Gwen starts as yet another instance of his brothers coming out on top (both of their brides are beautiful; why isn’t his?), but Frederick is forced to realize that some of his preconceived notions about people — and himself — are wrong. While Gwen might not be outwardly beautiful, at least at first, her heart shines through, and Frederick begins to have feelings for her after all. In order to express those feelings, Frederick first needs to rescue himself from the pit he’s been stuck in all this time. He needs to muster his courage and make the first move to better himself and take a chance on love.
Perfection Isn’t Perfect
While recognizing perceived ugly aspects of ourselves — physical attributes and mental hang-ups alike — is commonplace, the flaws in those we perceive as perfect aren’t always apparent. While physically attractive and talented in traditional fairy tale ways, each member of Gwen’s beautiful family has their own set of insecurities. At first, excited by the idea of marrying one of the Plaid Princes, Maria begins to doubt whether she is good enough for Prince Blaine and his family when the Plaid Queen vocalizes a strong resistance to the marriage alliance. Maria goes through a similar moment of being stuck as Gwen did, as she thinks that she can’t share her struggle with her family because it could ruin the alliance and pull everyone else down with her. Despite being beautiful, kind, and an amazing singer, Maria cannot impress the unimpressible Plaid Queen.
Lorena runs into a problem when she wants to put her tactical mind and battle-oriented interests to use learning to lead the Pastel Kingdom’s army. Her father laughs off the idea, displaying once again his overprotective nature over his daughters, and instead announces that Jamie will lead the military. This leaves Lorena to learn as much as possible about battle in order to prove her father wrong, but she struggles to find others who understand her plight. Much like Lorena, Jamie is shaken by their father’s announcement. As an entrepreneur and food connoisseur, as well as a free spirit that many people, including his family, just don’t understand, Jamie is much more creatively inclined and wants to break away from the expectations of his father — expectations that, until now, Jamie didn’t even know existed.
Jamie, arguably the most confident character in the story, is shaken by the prospect that he might not get to do what he wants to do with his life. Even in a subverted fairy tale like The Cursed Princess Club, the expectations and conventions of others can cause strife and self-conflict.
Fixing The Broken Mirror
Gwen’s journey toward self-love is long and difficult for her. After having her entire self-image shattered by one rude comment, she begins to see her reflection in the mirror as broken and faceless. But with the help of the Cursed Princess Club, she begins the struggle to find little parts of herself to love and to do something that makes her happy every day. A good support system and a willingness to take a second look at the parts of yourself that seem ugly at first are important parts of seeing your reflection for what it truly is.
It wasn’t as if those words weren’t hurtful to hear. But I noticed that it didn’t hurt nearly as much as the first time I heard them. And it’s all because I could feel their warmth and support around me.
– Princess Gwendolyn (( LambCat. “Hello Again.” The Cursed Princess Club, WEBTOON. 2020. ))
Self-hate comes in many forms, whether it be for our appearance, personality, or thwarted expectations. Luckily, there are also many paths to take toward a positive self-image. It’s important first to recognize the negative feelings to truly improve. Sometimes learning how to rely on yourself can pull you out of the pit. And sometimes, having a bit of outside support makes all the difference. Nobody is perfect, but everyone can take little steps toward recognizing that that’s okay.