Hunter Haag of Bachelor fame took to TikTok to shed light on her experience as a Disney Park Princess pre-COVID shutdown.
Haag (@hunterhaag) may look familiar as she recently appeared on The Bachelor season 26 and Bachelor in Paradise season 8.
But before she was competing for a rose from a suitor, Haag portrayed Disney princesses Belle and Rapunzel for five years at Disney World.
In a viral video by the TikToker, she opened up about some of the most 'traumatic' parts of the job, from auditioning to being told you're no longer suitable for the role.
She began:
"For those of you who do not know, I was a Disney Princess at Walt Disney World from 2016 until 2021, when I was laid off due to COVID-19."
For starters, Haag had to be extremely discreet about her profession.
"Super exciting job, but if somebody asks you what you do, I would say something like, 'Oh, I work in merchandise at Adventureland,' because they can't know you're a character."
"You also have to be really careful about what you put online as far as pictures go, and make sure no one comments on your photos being like, 'Oh my gosh, you're so beautiful!' because all of the comments have to be directed to the character."
She went on to describe some of the ruthless behavior by co-workers that actually benefited them.
"These are the people that talk badly about you, that aren't excited for you if you get a parade or show."
"I'll never forget there was this one girl who really wanted to be Ariel, and she sent casting pictures of Ariels through our picture system that she didn't think were well-suited to be Ariel."
"And you wanna know what happened to her? She got Ariel."
Seemingly one of the most traumatic experiences for Haag was fitting the character profile and finding out if she was still "qualified" to portray the princesses.
"Every eight months, we would get checked to make sure that we still fit the character profile, meaning that we still look young enough to be the character that we're portraying and that we still have the same silhouette we did when we were hired."
Translation:
"Your silhouette is your body, and they want to make sure that you're still fit enough or slender enough."
If not, Haag revealed you are "disapproved" and are no longer able to play the character.
Other hardships of the job included the costumes, which "can be very heavy and cause issues" and rarely being able to see sunlight as most of their jobs take place indoors in areas without windows. And of course, some guests display undesirable behavior.
"I feel like it can be really hard working at Disney as a princess when you have to be happy 100% of the time because you can't ever give yourself any grace to just be upset."
You can watch the entire video below.
Viewers of the video expressed their varying thoughts.
Some claimed they understood the reasoning behind the strict casting requirements.
@hunterhaag/TikTok
@hunterhaag/TikTok
Others noted being a Disney princess sounds like any other job, complete with a lengthy list of pros and cons.
@hunterhaag/TikTok
@hunterhaag/TikTok
Mostly, though, viewers thanked Haag for being honest and open about the struggles of portraying a princess at Disney World.
@hunterhaag/TikTok
@hunterhaag/TikTok
@hunterhaag/TikTok
@hunterhaag/TikTok
@hunterhaag/TikTok
@hunterhaag/TikTok
Haag revealed that although princesses frequently get "tugged" on a lot and "treated like zoo animals," the "good interactions outweigh the bad."
In another video, Haag highlighted some of her best memories of being a Disney princess, including interactions with guests aged two to 90 years old.
Enjoy!
