In honor of the anniversary of the release of Sleeping Beauty on Jan. 29, 1959, we set out to find the biggest Disney princess superfan out there. Meet Richard Schaefer.
Schaefer has been a fan of Disney princesses since he was a kid, but it wasn’t until he was in high school that he decided to become a Disney princess.
The 22-year-old Los Angeles-based student has been cosplaying as a Disney princess for over five years, and if you look at the princess photos on his Instagram profile, you’d never know that he is a 6-foot-tall guy.
In real life, Richard dresses in black and neutral colors most of the time, but a look in his closet reveals dozens of princess dresses, wigs, and costumes.
Richard says that as a kid, he was overweight and underconfident, and he was often teased about his looks, but that changed when he lost weight in high school.
“I had always been teased for my weight or how androgynous I look. I was always asked, ‘Are you a boy or a girl?’ Like all the time, and it just became a regular thing,” he says. “As I lost weight and gained a bunch of self-confidence, I kind of came to terms with my appearance, like: “This is who I am. I have to own it.’”
The Little Mermaid was the first movie Richard ever saw, and he has always loved Ariel. In childhood pictures, he is often carrying an Ariel doll.
When he decided to dress up, Ariel was a natural choice, but Richard says he knew nothing about makeup — especially princess makeup. He says he had to learn how to make his eyes look big and how to make his skin look smooth, like an animated character’s.
He has now dressed up as more than 15 Disney princesses, from Ariel…
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