“Once upon a time . . .” It’s a phrase that many people know. This phrase is commonly associated with fairy tales. Fairy tales have been around for many centuries, and every culture has various versions of the more common ones we hear today such as Cinderella, the Little Red Riding Hood, or Robinhood. There are various research studies and articles on fairy tales, from how it affects political views to how they have changed over time. I became interested in the discussions concerning fairy tales and their effect on children. The sources that have come before me often discussed how children reacted to fairy tales or perhaps a behavior change in children due to the famed stories. I decided to take all these articles and studies and analyze the conclusions of them. I came to my own conclusion: fairy tales are a key component in childhood development. They benefit the mental well being of young children, provide and encourage good behaviors in children, and they also positively impact society. These things all benefit children, and help them have a happy, healthy development. This is why I believe that fairy tales are a key component in childhood development.
The definition of fairy tales varies. It really depends on the scholar. One example of a definition is from an English professor at Cal State-Los Angeles: Steven Swans Jones.. According to Jones, “Fairy tales, then, are narratives that have been shaped over centuries of retelling and that have achieved a basic narrative form that is a distillation of human experience.”(5) Another definition that is different is by a woman named Amanda MacGregor, a famous blogger, who defined it in her article “The Social Functions of Folktales and Fairytales”. She defines fairy tales as “. . . stories that often involve the presence of magic and mystical characteristics”. I won’t say that either definition is wrong, but rather, they go together. Many different professors and scholars from the sources I’ve read have come to similar, if not the same, conclusions.             To summarize, the definition is: fairy tales are stories that often involve some sort of magic, and they have been passed down from generation to generation.
When these stories are passed down, they are told to children. Many kids have grown up with those stories. With more research available, and curiosity growing, some people decided to see how fairy tales affected these children. Mental health was something researchers found out was affected by fairy tales. They affected the children in a positive manner. “The fairy tale genre provides ways for children to receive important messages. Although there are some themes in fairy tales that are unrealistic, the overall effect is positive and offers fundamental elements for children’s development.”(VisikoKnox-Johnson) Not only that, but fairy tales provide a way for children to access their imagination in a healthy, and possibly therapeutic, way. Fairy tales also have the ability to offer young people to not only imagine in a therapeutic way, but to also express themselves therapeutically (Walker). All these things are multiple ways to help with mental health. Young children can find themselves, deal with basic human conflicts, desires, and relationships in a healthy way. All these things allow for safer and easier ways for children to express how they feel, leading to better mental health.
          To expand further on the topic of mental health, not only can fairy tales be therapeutic, but also “. . . elicit a child's inner thoughts and feelings, expose conflicts and frustrations, reduce anxiety, and gain mastery over developmental tasks.”(Lubetsky) Fairy tales are the most important for children under the age of eight, when they are still in the largest of their developing stages. A study published in the Psychology of Well-Being Journal done by authors Chiara Ruini, Licia Masoni, Fedra Ottolini, Silvia Ferrari examined the mental health improvements 21 participants achieved from fairy tales. The participants, all suffering from mental disorders, were introduced to multiple themes in fairy tales in seven sessions. The results showed that the participants experienced increased personal growth, self-acceptance, and an enhanced sense of appreciation of life and personal strengths, together with decreased levels of anxiety. The results help further prove my point of fairy tales being beneficial for children’s mental well-being. Based on the positive effects they have on children’s mental health, fairy tales are vital to childhood development. Children learn to express themselves emotionally, find who they are as a person, understand and expose their conflicts, reduce anxiety, and receive messages all through the teaching and exposure of fairy tail during the development stage. The positive effects fairy tales have on the mental well-being of children makes them a key component in a healthy childhood development.
          Along with the great effects on mental health, fairy tales also help with the development of positive behaviors. When young children are exposed to fairy tales, they can develop certain positive behaviors: team building, cooperation, being kind, respecting others, helping children share their desires, and expressing their agonies and inner conflicts (Tsitsani, Psyllidou, Batzios, Livas, Ouranos, and Cassimos). When a child reads stories in their developing stage, they tend to pick up certain behaviors that they copy, such as helping others, or be kind to all. These behaviors help positively impact a child’s life, and can help lead to a happier person as they grow up. A child who learns to cooperate well from copying fairy tale stories will most likely grow up to cooperate well with others. A qualitative study done on fifteen 3-4 year olds by Inaad Mutlib Sayer, Muhammad Kristiawan, and Mediarita Agustina was documented and published in an article called “Fairy Tale as a Medium for Children's Character Cooperation Building." The study shows how fairy tales are used to encourage healthy cooperation, and are used for character education. “Character education is not only about what is true and what is wrong; it is an attempt to inculcate good habituation so that students are able to behave and act on the values that have become personality.”(Sayer, Kristiawan, and Agustina 108-116) Fairy tales help teach children a moral compass, they figure out what is good and what is bad, even though the world doesn’t exactly work that way. But with children, they learn the starter base for how to be a good citizen or person through the actions of fairy tale characters. This is a good thing because, “Individuals with good character are individuals who can make decisions and are prepared to account for any consequences of the decisions they make.”(Sayer, Kristiawan, and Agustina 108-116) Fairy tales can be used to help children develop healthy, positive behaviors that will benefit them in the future. Teaching children positive behaviors are important in their development stage due to this. When a child grows up believing that that particular behavior is ‘good’, they are more likely to behave similarly as they grow into adults.
          Now not only do fairy tales just affect children, but they also affect society as a whole, and that can benefit the children. Fairy tales are used in society as a symbol for the various life issues people may experience. All cultures have them, and almost all stories have hundreds, if not thousands, of different versions due to the many literary and oral versions. Snow White as we know it today, is said to have at least five hundred different oral versions in itself. Society uses these stories to connect to each other and to cope with whatever issues we may be going through. Almost everyone can connect to at least one fairy tale story. “If we take the tale as a reflection of the inner landscape, we see that all the characters can represent aspects of our own personalities.”(Young) This is why society holds such a big importance on fairy tales. We connect to them in a personal way. Not only that, but as we get older, the more we realize the true meanings behind fairy tales. That they aren’t just all black and white. Jonathon Young states: The storytellers intentionally loaded the adventures with heavy symbolism to reveal more meanings as we develop a deeper awareness of ourselves. . . People identify with certain characters in the stories they heard in childhood. To some degree, many live out these stories, largely unaware of how much the old tales may be shaping our lives.
          Whether we know it or not, fairy tales have been a part of our lives since the day we started reading stories. This is why I stated that fairy tales are a key component in childhood development. They are such a huge part of society that we use to connect ourselves to others and to help cope with various issues. Exposing a child to fairy tales is going to happen no matter what, and that’s why it is so important to embrace them. Fairy tales will only evolve from here, or as Alice Abler explains:
The mutable fairy tale has always been both an unrelenting influence on society and a mirror of society. From oral tradition, through the literary fairy tale, and now to cinema—we can only imagine what new medium will carry fairy tales to the next generations and what influential messages they will instill.
          Like fairy tales, things aren’t black or white when you look deep enough. There are some negative impacts fairy tales may have on children that people have brought up. Like I stated before, children tend to copy the behaviors that are represented in fairy tales. So what happens when negative behaviors are represented? They sometimes have negative impacts that fairy tales have had on children's thoughts of mother figures. “Apart from influencing readers’ beliefs, however, fairy tales also have the ability to shape the under-aged recipients’ perceptions of reality, society, and their own role in society.” (Wittmann) This is true based on the information provided so far. Young children in the developing stage can often mimic fairy tales in their behavior, thoughts, and even virtues. When a child continuously is exposed to fairy tales that play the mother figure as evil, they can either see mother figures as evil or see it as wrongful behavior. In almost all cases, children begin to put together that the evil mother figure, often the step-mother, is wrong, and they should stop their actions. Some children just have a negative view of step-mothers from fairy tales, as that’s usually the bad female figure. While people may argue this is why fairy tales aren’t an important part of childhood development, even Wittmann disagrees:
While they may sometimes foster feelings of resentment against their mother, for example, they may feel guilty at the thought of seeing her in a negative light. The fairy tale helps children to keep the good and the bad mother apart. They can hold on to the image of the good mother while acknowledging the presence of the bad mother. This is evident in the split into mother and stepmother in Cinderella and Snow White, or into mother and grandmother in Little Red Riding Hood. This separation gives the children stability, until they have overcome their dichotomous world view of good and evil.
Although there are negative representatives in fairy tales, fairy tales also give children the opportunity to decide and see that these actions are wrong. They began to differentiate the difference between what is good and bad with the people around them. Often enough they realize that there are bad mother figures, but that theirs is not one of them.
          Another counter-argument that is brought up is that fairy tales may be too dark for children (VisikoKnox-Johnson). Now, this may also be true. The older fairy tales have very dark backgrounds, or the meanings of them were different in order to protect children. The Little Red Riding Hood is originally thought to be about how children should not talk to strangers. In one of the original stories for The Little Mermaid, Ariel actually dies because she refuses to kill the prince in order to get her legs back. Not only that, but many cultures made political or sexual jokes in their versions. “Many of the stories contained themes of rape or attempted rape by a father to his daughter. That specific theme of a father trying to exploit and violent his daughter was replaced by a “stepmother” character that was often very beautiful and hated her stepchildren.” (MacGregor) The older stories were dark, but I would still argue that it was vital for a child to be exposed to them. Times were darker back then, and the hidden meanings behind the stories were meant to enlighten the children or to keep them safe. The telling of those stories today is not very popular, especially to young children. Most people don’t even know the older versions, having just been exposed to Disney’s empire of fairy tales. I still believe that fairy tales are a key component in childhood development. Kids nowadays aren’t exposed to the darker versions of fairy tales, instead having new ones that embrace the thoughts of being kind to all or help your neighbors. And even if they were exposed, the meanings behind the old stories were also important. They helped children understand the darkness of their current world, but also how to be safe in that environment.
In the end, my thoughts are still the same: fairy tales are a key component in childhood development. We’ve looked at how they benefit mental health by helping children find themselves, find meaning in life, reduce anxiety, help children express themselves, and how it helps them receive messages. We discussed how fairy tales also benefit children’s behaviors in a positive way, from cooperation with others to simply being kind. The importance of fairy tales in society also plays into benefitting children in development. They are important to society as a whole, we have had them for generations. We use fairy tales to educate and entertain our children as they grow up. And although there are some negative effects fairy tales may have, they often don’t happen at all. Children are able to find what is good and evil through the representation of evil characters. They are also able to learn something, either about the world around them or themselves. No matter how dark the story is, fairy tales were told to help children. This is why I believe that fairy tales are a key component in childhood development. They help children become healthier in the mind. They help develop good moral compasses, and then grow into decent human beings who then pass the stories down again to their children. Fairy tales will continue to be an important part of our lives.

Works Cited
Abler, Alice. “The Moral of the Story.” Vision, Vision, 2005, www.vision.org/the-moral-of-the-story-fairy-tales-mirror-society-981.
Amanda MacGregor. “The Social Functions of Folktales and Fairytales.” Amanda MacGregor, Amanda MacGregor, 9 Jan. 2021, www.amandamacgregor.com/post/2017/09/12/the-social-functions-of-folktales-and-fairytales.
Coulacoglou, Carina. Exploring the Child’s Personality : Developmental, Clinical and Cross-Cultural Applications of the Fairy Tale Test. Charles C Thomas, 2008. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=446171&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
Johnson, Leilani V. "The Positive Impacts of Fairy Tales for Children." HOHONU 2016, vol. 14, pp. 77-81, hilo.hawaii.edu/campuscenter/hohonu/volumes/documents/ThePositiveImpactsofFairyTalesforChildrenLeilaniVisikoKnox-Johnson.pdf. Accessed 15 Apr. 2021.
Lubetsky, M.. “The magic of fairy tales: Psychodynamic and developmental perspectives.” Child Psychiatry and Human Development 19 (1989): 245-255.
Ruini, Chiara, et al. "Positive Narrative Group Psychotherapy: The use of Traditional Fairy Tales to Enhance Psychological Well-being and Growth." Psychology of Well-being, vol. 4, no. 1, 2014, pp. 1-9. ProQuest, resources.kirkwood.edu/login?url=www-proquest-com.resources.kirkwood.edu/scholarly-journals/positive-narrative-group-psychotherapy-use/docview/1731733047/se-2?accountid=45422, doi:dx.doi.org.resources.kirkwood.edu/10.1186/s13612-013-0013-0.
Sayer, Inaad M., Muhammad Kristiawan, and Mediarita Agustina. "Fairy Tale as a Medium for Children's Character Cooperation Building." Al-Ta'Lim Journal, vol. 25, no. 2, 2018, pp. 108. ProQuest, resources.kirkwood.edu/login?url=www-proquest-com.resources.kirkwood.edu/scholarly-journals/fairy-tale-as-medium-childrens-character/docview/2164441560/se-2?accountid=45422, doi:dx.doi.org.resources.kirkwood.edu/10.15548/jt.v25i2.458.
Stepp, Gina. “Raising a Moral Child.” Vision, Vision, 2013, www.vision.org/raising-moral-child-14.
Steven Swann Jones. The Fairy Tale. Vol. 1st Routledge pbk. ed, Routledge, 2002. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=360645&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
Tsitsani, P., et al. “Fairy Tales: A Compass for Children’s Healthy Development - a Qualitative Study in a Greek Island.” Child: Care, Health & Development, vol. 38, no. 2, Mar. 2012, pp. 266–272. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/j.1365-2214.2011.01216.x.
Walker S. “Young People’s Mental Health: The Spiritual Power of Fairy Stories, Myths and Legends.” Mental Health, Religion & Culture, vol. 13, no. 1, Jan. 2010, pp. 81–92. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/13674670903196721.
WITTMANN, GERDA-ELISABETH. “When Love Shows Itself as Cruelty: The Role of the Fairy Tale Stepmother in the Development of the Under-Aged Reader.” Mousaion, vol. 29, no. 3, 2011 Special Issue 2011, ptp. 1–11. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=llf&AN=97849304&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
Young, Jonathan. “How Fairy Tales Shape Our Lives.” Center for Story and Symbol, 1997, folkstory.com/articles/onceupon.html.
Zipes, Jack Relentless Progress : The Reconfiguration of Children’s Literature, Fairy Tales, and Storytelling. Routledge, 2009. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=253743&site=ehost-live&scope=site.