What do you do when you read a fairy tale and think there’s something missing? If you have the creative spirit of Dr. Amelia Case and her two daughters, you write your own books!

I was happy to hear about Amelia’s venture to energize and inspire girls with new stories in which the beautiful princesses we know so well engage in self-starting endeavors. “Princesses with a Twist” just reached its fundraising goal to publish the first three of the new stories.

On Wednesday, July 22, I enjoyed attending the Princesses with a Twist launch event at Vanille Patisserie. For the day, the Chicago bakery lusciously reflected one of the new stories, in which Snow White overcomes her fear of apples and opens an apple-themed bakery, through the efforts of Vanille’s owner Sophie Evanoff and florist Virginia Wolff.

In some ways, the stories she and her daughters have created remind me of my own life. There’s nothing wrong with a princess finding her happy ending when she marries a handsome prince, but in my own life I’ve found fulfillment and enrichment through being engaged in interesting projects, overcoming obstacles and exploring new opportunities. In the Princesses with a Twist stories, each princess is motivated to apply her passion and skills to create something valuable to herself and to others.