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A professional princess has revealed the tough realities of her job including grandparents grabbing her rear as she has to stay in character.
Amy Sales, 30, from Western Australia has been working as a princess for hire since 2014 and now has her own business, Glass Slipper Entertainment (GSE).
She set up GSE when she was just 23 after a local parent informed her that Elsa and Anna entertainers for her daughter's party were going to cost $500 (£268).
Amy wanted to make princesses for children’s parties financially accessible for her community and now GSE is a nationally-renowned company that has attended over 500 parties and events.
While Amy loves bringing the magic to children’s lives, parents and grandparents can be incredibly inappropriate.
“My first ever fairy party, wearing a shorter dress, I was having a photo with a grandad and he took the opportunity to grab my behind,” she told the Daily Star.
“I had to remain in character and just turned to him and said ‘cheeky’ and he had no remorse.
“Upon leaving the party I informed the mum of the birthday child and she was disgusted and apologised profusely for what happened.”
Amy has also had fathers try and be sneaky and ask her for her business card.
“[They do this] essentially to get my number and I just pretend like it’s my ‘bosses’ phone number on there, not mine,” she revealed.
“It can be quite confronting especially when you need to stay in character and therefore, can’t tell them what you would like to.”
Unfortunately, Amy said there can be “so many” lows of the job, especially when performing in Australia.
“You can probably guess that the extreme heat mixed with wigs and giant dresses is definitely a huge low for us,” she explained.
“Even on a 35 degree celsius day parents still have outdoor parties and we just melt the entire time, sometimes not even offered water.
“Another low is the parents that don’t keep the magic alive for the children. I entered a party once and this mum, in front of her child, shouts out ‘Amy, I can’t believe you’re here, do you remember Ruby? You were a fairy at her party the other week.’ I will never understand why they do this.”
Amy also has to regularly deal with the rude misconceptions people have about the work she does.
She has been asked whether she “just dresses up and plays with kids” and has been called a glorified babysitter.
“Unfortunately a lot of these misconceptions come from a variety of quick-money, low-quality companies that are set up all of the time to undercut us,” she explained.
“It’s always lovely when those clients inform us the following year that they regret not coming to me and would like to book a proper character experience for their child’s party.”
All of this being said, the highs of the job outweigh the lows. Having worked in the industry for a number of years, Amy loves the work she does.
She particularly loves being able to work with children and see the smiles on their faces.
“They are so grateful and amazed that we have come from our kingdoms to celebrate with them,” the 30-year-old said.
“They give hugs, high fives and sometimes even drawings that they have made us. At a recent photoshoot that I ran with five princesses, one of the little girls that won a chance to be in the shoot gave me a card with a photo of me dressed up on the front and asked me to give it to that character.
“She had no idea it was me and it was such a special moment to hear from her about the experience of meeting that character more than a year before.”
Amy started out her career only doing children’s parties but has since moved on to community events, charity functions and hospital visits.
She has even created her own events, such as an original pantomime A Princess Dream in 2018 and the Royal Ball 2020 and 2021.
It is her belief that all families deserve the highest level of service at the most affordable price. This philosophy has been the foundation of Glass Slipper Entertainment AU from the start.
Amy added: “I started this as just me and my sister and thanks to the support of my local community, family and friends I have now grown to have a team of entertainers behind me.
“It is so amazing just how much magic we are able to spread to the children of Perth, Western Australia, through parties, events and even hospital visits.”
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