It was a little joke my dad had concerning he and I, asking when Disney was going to send us the royalties for being character look-alikes. He caught a lot of people trying to take pictures of him from their phones due to having a resemblance to Mr. Fredricksen in UP, and I've caught a few pointed at me after the movie FROZEN came out. He really got tickled about that with me, and likes to tell everyone about it; however, what he tells people now has turned into a completely inaccurate story, so I'm going to straighten it all out for everyone once a for all.
The story he tells has multiple stories mixed into one, but he starts at the beginning in the right place. The first time anyone ever had a reaction was on a warm sunny day when I was travelling up to the BYU campus with my dad and my aunts to visit the family history center located in the library. When we got there and walked through the quad area toward the library, we discovered the quad to be populated by some Disney characters. FROZEN was out for about three or four months, so the characters were still new and extremely popular, so naturally Anna was there in the shade, and I saw a few others around, but she was the one we passed. I had a light blue shirt on and my hair was in a French braid, but I walked by trying not to be noticed. It seemed to be a success, until I got in the library, turned around to make sure I wasn't walking too fast for my aunts (I'm a naturally fast walker), and looked up to find a student pointing her phone at me. I'm quite sure it was because of the hair. That's all there was to this story, but my dad likes to mix it up with the next story.
It was a few months later that I was in a thrift store just poking around and finding some fun things to buy, and while I was waiting for the cashier to run everything, I looked over, and there was this little girl looking at me. She greeted me, and said to me, "I know who you are." Yep. I'd never met this girl in my life. I joked after that about having toddler stalkers. It came to me that part of that may have come from the clothes I was wearing that day, because oddly enough, I was wearing the exact, or close to, colors that Elsa wore during her coronation. My dress was the same color or turquoise blue, I had a black shirt and leggings underneath, and even my jacket was close to the color of the robe! Hey, I always say I didn't copy her color palette, she copied mine! I wore those colors long before Disney created her!
Incidentally, that's not the only time I've had kids sneaking around to look at me, and wave at me in stores and other public places. I've even had a lovely rendition of "Let it Go" sung at me by kids I passed on the street! I didn't mind it though. To be honest, I always saw myself as more of a possible cute person at best rather than someone of exceeding beauty physically speaking, and to even have a sort of a resemblance is a great compliment, so I didn't mind the random things that happened to me. Plus, I've had people staring at me since I was a teen due to my whiteness (my hair particularly), so I'm a bit used to it, and have long learned not to let it bother me. I've been asked a few times if I'm an albino, and I don't take offense. I understand they're usually just being curious. To clear the air, I'm not an albino. My eyes and vision have always been good. My skin is normal besides the fact that it burns easily due to it's lightness.
Even at Disneyland itself I got a few looks. On my first visit I was super shy about visiting characters, but on my last day I finally got the courage to do it. I'm sure that they came to a similar conclusion. I could see that look in their eyes that almost had a look of shock while they talked with me. Snow White even addressed me as, "Your Majesty" while I was leaving. It was crazy. My second trip was only two weeks after the FROZEN II came out, and I was hearing comments from people behind me such as, "Look at that lady's hair!" I had a CM singing, "Show Yourself" behind my back while I was in a store, and a little girl did the same thing while I was waiting in line for a ride. I overheard a conversation between a little girl and her mother. She was trying to tell her mother that that lady over there had hair like Elsa, and the mother rebuked her telling her that a lot of women color their hair like that. I was super tempted to turn around and saying it's all natural, but didn't. I gave the little girl a friendly smile before I left the store though. The characters? That was an interesting experience. Not as profoundly obvious as the first time around, but Tinkerbell was shocked and tongue-tied, I could see her watching me when I was talking with the photopass photographer. The most interesting reaction of all was the evil eye the Evil Queen gave me when she first saw me--thus the reason the security guard from my recent visit should have warned me earlier. What an adventure that was! I'm not sure exactly what else would have caused those reactions, and I've grown up my whole life seeing stuff like that, so it's only natural to assume that's the why behind those responses also.
When I first started actively writing on here, it wasn't too long into it that I was challenged by friends after the first movie came out to be Elsa for Halloween. I don't like to dress up that much, but I found the challenge intriguing. My hair was probably about collar bone length, and so the challenge was to see how much I could grow it out in 6-7 months as well as dress up. It was a fun little challenge, and I thought I'd found this perfect dress to wear, but that was before I realized I needed to pay attention to what I was really ordering (still have that issue once in a blue moon). The dress I got was cheap and extra thin material, so layers were in order. I got it to work, though, and my coworkers who saw it were happy enough to see it as it was--and my hair had grown almost halfway down my back, not nearly enough to get a super long braid, but long enough for it to sit over my shoulder.
I had a few funny stories from that experience. One time I was headed into the restroom and beat another who was only steps away, thus basically slamming the door in her face, so she knocks on the door and asks, "Do you want to build a snowman?" That made me laugh. I also had something I needed to do in an office area that was upstairs. I walked in and passed the manager's office while her door was open. Just as I was passing, she spoke out loud, "Why did it suddenly get cold in here?" She looked over and saw me. Oh, the irony! Last, but not least, I had a coworker bring her toddler granddaughter over to see me. That little girl didn't know what to think, and was especially nervous when she touched my hand, simply because my hand happened to be freezing cold at the moment! My hands had that reputation, but I used to have someone who used to shake my hand just to make sure it was still cold, because, "Cold hands=warm hearts."
Anyway, it's Halloween evening, and we're having a dutch oven apple cobbler dessert tonight, so I'm stoked and ready to go. I will enjoy the rest of the night. That's my order to me. Enjoy!
These pictures were taken two separate years. The first two were taken on the second year. My hair didn't quite get the volume I wanted, but the braid is slightly longer than the year before, which is the third picture (note the braid thickness). The second picture I touched up a little, because I wanted to get an idea of what it would have looked like had I taken the time to put more makeup on.
