A 15-year-old girl named Mia Thermopolis gets ready and goes to school at a fancy private school in Sand Francisco called Grove High School. She has debate class, where she must discuss a side to a specific topic. For this one, it’s about the idea of casual Friday and allowing students to wear what they want instead of their school uniform.

But Mia gets too nervous when speaking to a large group. If that’s not bad enough, she becomes so anxious that she runs out of the class and vomits.

Sometime later, the popular cheerleaders make fun of her for that. Mia only has 2 friends at school: Lilly Moscovitz and her older brother, Michael. She especially spends a lot of time with Lilly.

A surprise that Mia gets is being invited to a fancy mansion by her paternal grandmother, Clarisse, who is on a diplomatic visit to San Francisco. Once the time comes, Mia goes to that place and meets her grandma, who is kind.

While the two are having tea together, Clarisse reveals to Mia that her father was royal, which means that Mia is actually the princess of Genovia. Mia, however, has trouble believing that. Not only is she unable to accept herself as a member of the royal family, but she also doesn’t want to be a part of that.

Shocked and scared, Mia runs away from the mansion and goes home. She gets mad at her mother for never telling her this before.

After a little time, Mia’s mom convinces her to attend etiquette lessons to be a princess. There is also going to be an Independence Day Ball for Genovia in 3 weeks. Mia can make a decision on whether to live as a princess or not around that time.

Mia sees Clarisse after school and gets lessons on how to be royal. She also meets the chauffeur, Joe, who drives her around in his special car.

Lilly, however, is frustrated that Mia isn’t spending as much time with her anymore. She is also planning a video to air for school that she wants Mia to be a part of.

After several lessons on how to act as a princess, Mia gets a big makeover. She gets her wild unruly hair straightened and trimmed and wears nice, but simple, make-up.

Nervous with how other students are going to react at school, Mia pins her hair up and wears a hat over it. But a teacher makes her take it off since wearing headgear is against school policy. Everyone is surprised by her new look.

But Mia is required to keep secrets as a royal member. When Lilly starts getting jealous and mad at her, worrying that she is going to betray her, Mia tells her the secret. But she warns her not to repeat it.

However, journalists and students start going all over her now that she’s practically a celebrity. Of course, it stresses her out.

Mia also attends her first state dinner with Clarisse. But she embarrasses herself, although the others laugh with her.

Mia’s popularity continues to grow. At some point, she gets a car and drives it with Clarisse in the passenger seat. Unfortunately, she loses control and hits a bus filled with tourists.

The police almost arrest Mia for driving without a permit and having someone with an expired license supervise her. But Clarisse uses her royal ways to talk the cops out of it. Then they decide not to press charges against Mia.

Later Mia’s crush, Josh, invites her to the school’s beach party. Forgetting about Lilly’s show with Michael, Mia accepts the invitation.

What starts out as a fun time, though, turns into a nightmare as paparazzies continue to photograph Mia. She and Josh hide, yet that only works temporarily.

Poor Mia is overwhelmed and stressed out by her lack of privacy. To make matters worse, she realizes that she forgot about Lilly’s video.

What will happen next?

This movie drew me in all the way through. The concept of an ordinary girl turning out to be a princess was creative. I particularly admired how Mia was resistant to the idea at first and how she had to practice proper princess etiquette. In fact, real royalty members have a lot of strict rules and etiquette to follow, making the elements related to that believable.

Mia was a likable character. She acted and struggled like a real teenage girl. She would get stressed, nervous, and want a regular life.

One aspect that I think a lot of real teenagers, as well as younger kids, can relate to is struggling with public speaking. That is very normal to get nervous while having to talk to a crowd.

And unlike many movies with teenage characters, where the actors playing them are in their 20s or even 30s, Mia was portrayed by a real teen. Anne Hathaway, who depicted Mia, was only 17 to 18 years old.

Mia did have a nice relationship with her grandma as well as her friends, mom, and even cat. Lilly was also likable, although I did loathe when she was rude to Mia. But then she explained why and apologized.

Like with many good movies, the pacing was quick for the most part. The scenes also switched at the right times.

That being said, I will admit that certain parts made the narrative a little confusing at times. But they were important for the plot and character development. They also kept the levels of tension high.

Overall, I enjoyed The Princess Diaries. It was a good film that people of all ages can watch and like.

I give it 4 out of 5 stars.