Representation matters! Videos of young black girls online are going viral as they react to Halle Bailey in the first Little Mermaid trailer.
The Little Mermaid is one of my all-time favorite Disney movies (and definitely tops the list when it comes to the soundtrack), so I've been a totally reasonable level of excited for the live-action movie and definitely didn't lose my mind when the first trailer dropped. Okay, maybe I cried a little bit, but I'm definitely not the only one!
While it's just a teaser trailer, fans got their first real look at Halle Bailey as Ariel, and got to hear her powerful pipes on part of the iconic song "Part Of Your World."
There have been some people who aren't happy with the film's decision to cast a black actress in the role of Ariel, but there are lots of kids out there who are ecstatic.
Like this one, showing a little girl named Sienna reacting to the trailer, and when Ariel appears on screen, her face lights up. "That is Ariel? That is her? That's the real her?" she asks in wonder.
“The look in their eyes when they see that is the reason this is so important. I don’t know why people can’t understand that," one of the comments on this video reads.
In this video, a 3-year-old girl watches the TV enraptured, continuing to yell "Brown Ariel! Brown Ariel is cute," while the trailer plays.
Halle Bailey herself has spoken out about how important representation like that can be.
"The fact that now it's getting to be played by me, a person who looks like me, woman of color, I'm just like, wow, I'm so grateful for what it will do for all the other little Black and brown boys and girls who will see themselves in me," Halle told People. "Because I know if I had seen myself when I was younger, I think my whole perspective would've changed."
