Meg Cabot, author of The Princess Diaries and many other titles, stopped by BuzzFeed to chat about her two new additions to the series. Here’s what she had to say.
David J. Bertozzi / BuzzFeed
After publishing over 50 books that sit on the bookshelves of both teens and adults and shaping the adolescence of countless teenage girls with her famous Princess Diaries series, Meg Cabot is far from finished creating her legacy. Fifteen years after the original Princess Diaries book was published, the author is back with two new novels to include in the best-selling series: Royal Wedding and From The Notebooks of a Middle School Princess.
In Royal Wedding, readers get to learn about Princess Mia Thermopolis as a full-fledged adult who now lives in New York City, planning a future with her longtime boyfriend, Michael. Adding to the expected chaos that her lifestyle brings, Mia discovers she has a younger sister named Olivia. Both Royal Wedding and From The Notebooks of a Middle School Princess tell the story — from juxtaposed perspectives — of two sisters who are just trying to do what Mia's always tried to do: figure everything out.
BuzzFeed had the chance to catch up with Cabot and talk about her new novels, weddings, and the double standards that women face. Here's what she had to say:
It's been six years since you published your last Princess Diaries book and 15 years since the whole series started. What made you want to write Royal Wedding?
Meg Cabot: My first book was published in 1998, and I've had multiple books come out every year since then, so I took last year off as a sabbatical because I was really tired. I had a lot of time to think about what I was doing with my life and I decided, I'm just going to do what I want, because why not? But then after taking some time off I decided that I missed writing the Princess Diaries books — also, the 15th anniversary was coming up — so I decided to write another one. They're really fun and it's been 15 years so I figured, why not do an anniversary edition? The first book in The Mediator series [a collection of six novels about a teen girl ghost hunter who falls in love with the ghost who lives in her bedroom] also came out in 2002, so I'm also going to publish an anniversary edition of that book, which doesn't come out until February. Those two novels, as well as From The Notebooks of a Middle School Princess, ended up being the books I wrote when I was on my sabbatical, even though I technically wasn't supposed to be working. But it was my sabbatical and that's what I wanted to do. I know it's totally geeky that on your sabbatical you would want to write, but that's what I did, because that's what I love to do.
How long did it take you to write Royal Wedding?
MC: I probably started writing it in October 2013. Since it's a diary, a lot of the material and story is essentially my own writing. I used to keep a blog where I wrote down a lot of my own thoughts, but I stopped doing that as much now that social media is such a big deal and I'm always on Twitter and Facebook. So instead, I've just started putting my own thoughts into Princess Mia's diary.
Did you put a lot of yourself into the book?
MC: Yes, I have to say there's a lot of me in Princess Mia. She can't drive either, by the way — technically she doesn't have to because she goes around in limos and town cars, but neither of us can drive and we share a lot of similarities, including our thoughts and ideas about the world.
Why did you see Mia at this point in her life, as a 26-year-old?
MC: Chronologically, it's what seemed to make the most sense. A lot of the readers who started reading the books in 2000 when it first came out are now about 25 years old, which is close to Mia's age. I hear from a lot of those readers about what they're doing with their lives; a lot of them are getting married, not necessarily all of them but a lot of them, and most of them are also starting careers. That's also what's going on in Mia's life; she now has her career after opening a community youth center in New York City and is engaged to get married. It's interesting to hear about different readers' struggles — a lot of them have graduated from college and are seeing what the real world is like. I thought that'd be interesting, too, to describe from Mia's point of view. And now they've discovered that people's cognitive functions aren't fully working until they're 26, which means you're basically still an adolescent until then. So don't make any really big decisions before 26.
In Royal Wedding, Mia ends up getting married as a 26-year-old. How did your own ideas about marriage and feminism shape the story?
MC: At some points in the story, Mia is hesitant to get married and asks herself, "Do I really want to focus on my career? Do I really want to settle down? Am I keeping my independence?" Those are things that I think that everybody goes through and considers before making a huge decision like getting married, but she also loves Michael a lot and there are compelling reasons for her to get married. As a royal, she's constantly being photographed by the paparazzi coming out of his apartment and is being called a slut. It's slut-shaming, which is something that I think happens to a lot of celebrities, particularly royals, and Mia knew that would stop happening if they were officially married.
David J. Bertozzi / Charlotte Gomez / BuzzFeed
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