Harry Rountree. 'The wild swans carry little Elsie over the sea', 1922. Illustration from My Book of Best Fairy Tales by Charles S. Bayne, published by Cassell and Co. in 1922.
When I was a child I believed everything was possible. Sadly, I was met with adults who told me I should grow up and be responsible. They said fairy tales aren't sensible.
For a time I listened to that, thinking their worldview was reliable. When they told me my dreams and ambitions were unattainable. But then, I grew up and came to my own senses...how some adults are abominable.
Adults…many of them see in children what they’ve allowed to die inside of themselves. I know now they are very much ashamed of themselves. For that reason, they’d rather no child grows up to be happier or nobler than themselves.
I’m sure it must be envy.
I’m now a grownup, too. But unlike them, I haven’t died; not really, no. Even better, now that I’m older, I’m going to see all my dreams and ambitions come true.
And one day, when I have a child of my own, I’ll teach them to fight for their own fairy tale.
When childhood dies, its corpses are called adults and they enter society, one of the politer names of hell. That is why we dread children, even if we love them. They show us the state of our decay.
I love doing character designs for fairy tales and folktales, so here's my interpretation of Snow White for fun. I imagined her look on the left to be as she's taken by the huntsman into the woods, and then her look on the right after she's braved the woods and made it to the dwarfs' cottage.