About

You Don’t Need a Prince: A Letter to My Daughter began as an email I sent to my daughter Scarlett. She was in her final year of college at Indiana University and was questioning a relationship that she was in. To complicate matters, she had also just met another man who had swept her off her feet.

At once miserable about breaking up with her long-time boyfriend, and also captivated by this new man (in a way I had never seen), she was going through a very emotional time. We had talked on the phone and exchanged emails and I knew this was a tough time for her. She had mixed emotions about ending her current relationship because she simply did not want to hurt him. I had mixed emotions about her falling so quickly and so completely for someone she had just met. To make matters even worse, the new guy was from Denmark. Denmark? Selfishly, I still harbored hopes of her finding a nice guy from Indiana. The current boyfriend lived in California. The potential boyfriend lived in Denmark. Either represented the very real possibility of taking my baby girl away from me.

During this time, one night I woke from a terrible dream. I don’t remember what the dream was about, but for some reason, Scarlett came to mind immediately. I had been worried about her, and the bad dream prompted me to get out of bed, and reach out to her through an email. I could not tell her what choices to make. We all have to find our own way. I could only tell her what I believe about love. The email I sent is presented in this book – with only a few words changed (I removed her boyfriend’s name and corrected a couple of misspelled words). These simple but heart-felt words meant so much to Scarlett that she began forwarding the email to her friends.

So, I thought that perhaps if I put these words in the form of a book, they might comfort and encourage another girl going through a tough time. Perhaps a friend might pass them along to another friend. Perhaps a mother might give them to her own daughter.

As I began to think of how to illustrate the book, I immediately thought of little girls – even though the intended audience for this book is women. Because I believe every mother sees her daughter as a little girl, no matter how old she is. And I believe every woman is a little girl at heart. So, I hope these words, and the faces of these beautiful little girls, will comfort you or another woman in your life.

And, by the way, in December of 2010, in our lake home, Scarlett had a beautiful fairytale princess wedding to the man of her dreams. She now lives in Denmark.

Cheryl Shireman