Growing up I watched Disney because my parents watched it and from the beginning, I fell in love with it. I remember the first Disney movie I watched which was The Little Mermaid and to this day it is my favorite movie. It was like my happy place and it taught me a lot of skills like just because something seems dangerous and new doesn’t mean it is, and it’s also ok to try new things. On the 16 of October 1923, Walt Disney founded, the Disney company. Disney has been around for over 100 years and as brought joy to children all around the world. Disney is beneficial to children and it has a big impact on kids. It teaches life lessons that they will need in everyday life and shapes them into adulthood.

Olivia Gills stated “Disney helped shape who I am by giving me role models when I was younger. The life skills that Disney taught me were friendship and family relationships, also how you should treat people and not judge them just because someone is different. Lemonade Mouth was one of my favorite movies mostly because it was about being popular doesn’t mean anything without having good friends by your side said Gills. 

A student at Gems American Academy stated “I grew up with Disney. Old Disney all the way to new Disney has been a consistent factor in my life. It’s sort of a comfort barrier that always brings me back to my childhood. It didn’t matter if we were watching a silly little show about chipmunks or a cinematic masterpiece like Hercules or Aladdin. All the movies managed to teach us something as children and I think they played a big role in what type of morals we grew up believing.”

Other people have different perspectives on Disney and how the shows and movies influence children and how they can have a negative impact on children. The Disney princesses can be shown as weak characters to children and they have to be dependent on a male. Movies like Snow White and Sleeping Beauty can give a negative impression on how little girls should act. According to Daily Sundial, Disney movies also teach little girls they are supposed to be complacent and weak if they want to be successful. Sleeping Beauty is a perfect example of this. Aurora, as the perfect woman, is depicted as extremely demure. In every case she is merely whisked through the story, rarely taking a proactive stance.

Disney can give false expectations of what life seems to be and how everything is happy and joyful and everyone is nice but in reality is not that way. Stephan Francios stated that “the movies High School Musical and Teen Beach movie give a false reality that everyone is going to breakout and start dancing in the middle of nowhere and if kids tries that they could get embarrassed or bullied.” Marvel movies can also give false impressions of reality to children. “The Spiderman movies give a false impression on animals like if you get bit by a spider you can turn into a spider yourself and have cool powers like Peter Parker does in the movies” said Francios.

Even so, the way social media has evolved children they are usually on their tablets watching Youtube or TikTok and that causes them to grow up too fast. Parents should introduce their kids to the fiction of Disney because it is beneficial and teaches them life skills and the importance of family and friendships and it allow them to just be kids.