• The Wall Street Journal, Monday, November 19, 2007 12 PM

Starting in 2001, Disney has enchanted 3- to 6-year-old girls throughout America with everything from princess comforters to princess-emblazoned sneakers. Smartly packaged releases of classic princess movies have helped bring girls back for more each year. Now Disney hopes to hook even younger girls and their moms on the craze with a new range of princess products aimed at newborns.

The princess clan will be featured on cribs, diaper-changing mats and other infant products next year. Also on tap: adding new princesses to the core lineup that includes Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, Belle and Jasmine, including an African-American princess called Tiana, who will make her debut in an animated film, "The Princess and the Frog."

Some critics complain that the princesses have become more sexualized; others worry that encouraging young girls to obsess about being a princess sends the wrong message. Disney doesn't see that as a problem, and says most parents understand that Disney Princess is simply a role-play phase that kids go through.

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